

Value and Job Creation = World Change - jm3
http://www.cyantology.com/2009/01/26/value-and-job-creation-world-change/

======
pj
What happens when the product or company you produce puts people /out/ of
work?

For example, if you allow one person to do the job of 10 and a company
purchases the product and lays off 9 people, is it still good? What if only 2
people work at your company?

~~~
pg
History answers this question clearly: it's fine. Somehow, labor-saving
technology always seems to create as many job as it eliminates. So after
centuries of innovations, the unemployment rate is no worse than it's been in
the past.

~~~
ivankirigin
I agree 100%, but there is disruption though. In the future, thing trend can
be broken.

I'm a big advocate for robots, as you know. But in a span of 10 years they
might advance enough to eliminate, say, 50% of the jobs out there. Think about
what would happen if you no longer need 90% of factory workers, drivers,
cleaning staff, etc...

That's why we should really start to stress the value of retraining for new
industries. People should expect to learn new things quickly.

~~~
pg
Technological development has always accelerated. So far it hasn't caused
dramatic social disruptions. Maybe now happens to be the exact moment that it
will. But by default you have to assume your fears are the usual temporal
chauvinism.

~~~
ivankirigin
There were certainly disruptions associated with past changes. Children
working in factories come to mind. But maybe I'm biased because of the evolved
social norms that increases in productivity enabled.

One reason I might be right is that there is a limit built into humans. We can
only change so fast (unless new tech makes us more agile).

Workers changes industries on a regular basis. But could they do it yearly?
Monthly?

Accelerating advances are bound to run into a wall of finite human abilities.

~~~
pg
Children working in factories was grim, but are you sure it was a
_disruption?_ I.e. are you sure life wasn't worse wherever the factory workers
came from? I'm not; factory workers weren't conscripted.

~~~
ivankirigin
It's certainly hard for me to know without reading more history. The most
common job to compare it to would have to be farming, which was a hard life
with different risks and rewards.

~~~
pg
The best book I know of on that transition is E. W. Bovill's _English Country
Life, 1780-1830_.

[http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=bovill&...](http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=bovill&kn=country+life+1780)

Incidentally, his _Golden Trade of the Moors_ is one of the best history books
I've ever read.

