They Took Our Jobs!
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James Joyner | Wednesday, June 25, 2008 |
Drew Carey asks, “How are we supposed to compete against something that doesn’t get paid, doesn’t get health insurance, and never goes on breaks?”
No, not illegal aliens, silly. They get paid (a little) and take the occasional break. No, he’s talking about robots.
Today, we don’t need human workers to book our travel, do our banking, or file our taxes. From factory workers to symphony conductors, countless workers are locked in battle with soulless job stealers known as computers, websites, and robots.
Carey says nobody’s complaining about this, although I’m not sure it’s true. Certainly, labor unions oppose the mechanization of labor without commensurate featherbedding to protect human jobs. But he’s right that the outcry seems to be small compared to the raging against migrant human workers.
The post title, of course, refers to the classic South Park episode “Goobacks.”
via Glenn Reynolds
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Carey says nobody’s complaining about this, although I’m not sure it’s true.
No it's not even remotely true given that complaints about automation putting people out of work go at least as far back as the Luddites in the 1810s.
As a side note there is some meaningful difference between a job becoming obsolete due to changes in technology, and the job being given to someone else for the sole reason that that other person enjoys no protections under the law and can therefore be abused by the employer at will.
The former can be regarded as a morally neutral tragedy. The latter is pretty distinctly evil.
Tlaloc,
Watch the video before commenting, Carey is talking about NAFTA not immigration.
I was replying to this:
But he’s right that the outcry seems to be small compared to the raging against migrant human workers.
I recall reading something a few years back where in japan a union rep was forced upon a company that was composed of 100% robot workers.
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