> However, the net gains, in my humble opinion, could be phenomenal.
And historically, have always been phenomenal.
If 100 years ago, you told people that only 1.5% of people in USA/Canada would work in agriculture, politicians would have been horrified and in fear of mass unemployment. They would have been similarly horrified if you told them that virtually nobody would work in textile manufacturing in the Western World.
But in reality, the jobs in the former are considered so dismal that they are heavily staffed by desperate people who have no other legal work options and migrant workers from poor countries and jobs in the latter pay so poorly globally that you would be better off running a lemonade stand in a Western country.
We are far better off for the combine harvester freeing us from harvesting wheat by hand. We are far better off for the sewing machine.
> We are far better off for the combine harvester freeing us from harvesting wheat by hand. We are far better off for the sewing machine.
Who's "we"? It's not like the people who aren't working with a scythe have moved up to be un-employed computer programmers, they're just picking fruit now.
People who were sewing by hand as a professional don't generally get the afternoon off now to chill with their homies, they just use the sewing machine all damn day.
The only "we" who is better off are consumers and business operators, because they pay less or nothing for that labour. Nobody is talking about the comfy lives of fast fashion makers or the people who assemble our $7000 MacBook pros.
And historically, have always been phenomenal.
If 100 years ago, you told people that only 1.5% of people in USA/Canada would work in agriculture, politicians would have been horrified and in fear of mass unemployment. They would have been similarly horrified if you told them that virtually nobody would work in textile manufacturing in the Western World.
But in reality, the jobs in the former are considered so dismal that they are heavily staffed by desperate people who have no other legal work options and migrant workers from poor countries and jobs in the latter pay so poorly globally that you would be better off running a lemonade stand in a Western country.
We are far better off for the combine harvester freeing us from harvesting wheat by hand. We are far better off for the sewing machine.