alt Hacker News...it does? This level of automation is recent, and industrialization is the blink of an eye in human history.
If we're talking shorter scale, people have traditionally hand-waived it with 'Oh, these jobs will go away, but they'll be replaced with other, higher-skilled jobs!'.
That's an economist's idealism and doesn't fit reality.
Replies
jacobn • yesterday at 10:06 PM
Historically it has fit reality, but yes, this time may well actually be different...
DanielVZ • yesterday at 10:06 PM
I think his answer is just even more work. In this case it could be services where in general and for historical reasons people want to interact with people.
CGP Grey has an older video now about what happened to horses over time.
For a while every economic advance seemed to mean more and better jobs for horses. But then the automobile comes along and there's no more need for horses and we can see what happens to an animal that has no economic reason to exist.
We still have a much smaller number of horses for the few economically viable roles a horse can fill and as toys for the wealthy.
The question is if labor will follow the same path.