Technological change can cause short term labor disruptions. They may or may not be broadly negligible. The more important point is that, throughout history, the societies that embrace new technology always end up better off (across the board, including the lower classes) in the long run, and the societies that do not always end up worse off (also across the board).
I was agreeing with this, gave it a bit of a think, then it occurred to me that surely cigarettes and the technical discoveries used to facilitate gambling addiction qualify as technology.
