
Bill de Blasio: Why American Workers Need to Be Protected from Automation - dmitrygr
https://www.wired.com/story/why-american-workers-need-to-be-protected-from-automation/
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eesmith
> my proposal would institute a “robot tax” on large companies that eliminate
> jobs through increased automation

What is a "robot"?

When a nearby canal was being built, they used steam power rather than people
power. The local workers were angry because they wanted the work.

The Luddites in the 180ss were rightly concerned about how automation was
replacing jobs which had taken years of training, with no consideration for
those who were now unemployed. Their movement has since been used -
incorrectly, IMO - to mean those opposed to new technology simply because it's
new technology.

Phil Ochs' "Automation Song" (1964):

    
    
      Oh I laid down your railroads, every mile of track
      With the muscles on my arm and the sweat upon my back
      And now the trains are rolling, they roll to every shore
      You tell me that my job is through, there ain't no work no more
      Though I laid down your highways all across the land
      With the ringing of the steel and the power of my hands
      And now the roads are there like ribbons in the sky
      You tell me that my job is through but still I wonder why
    
      For the wages were low and the hours were long
      And the labor was all I could bear
      Now you've got new machines for to take my place
      And you tell me it's not mine to share
      Though I laid down your factories and laid down your fields
      With my feet on the ground and my back to your wheels
      And now the smoke is rising, the steel is all a-glow
      I'm walking down a jobless road and where am I to go
    

Automation is everywhere.

Word processors and computers have replaced many secretarial jobs. (Have you
worked for a company with a secretary pool? They used to be quite common.) Are
those not robots displacing workers? Who pays?

I'm for UBI in part because it's much easier to justify universal support than
to pick and decide each how each job is affected by automation.

