On January 9, 2013, Matt Miller writes in The Washington Post:
“The Robots Take Over!” cries this month’s cover story in Wired Magazine. “They’re coming for your job – and you’ll be glad they did.” The piece, by Kevin Kelly, chronicles the amazing roles robotic technology is poised to take on – from warehouse worker and waitress to artist, musician, therapist and even comedian. It trumpets the news with the breezy optimism that characterizes most talk of technology’s impact on society.
And why not be breezy? One of the core tenets of economics is that technological advance is the wellspring of human betterment. Yes, new technologies disrupt old arrangements and devastate industries and workers they displace. But, over time, such innovation spawns new industries and jobs whose scale vastly exceeds the losses suffered by technology’s “losers.”
It’s the nature of economic change. The Luddites, as we learned in school, were wrong. Or, to put it more precisely, no one could blame them for fighting the machines that eliminated their skilled textile jobs. But the broader notion – that technological advance could destroy more jobs than it creates or cause widespread economic harm – is a fallacy.
Well, what if the Luddite Fallacy was a fallacy only for the first 250 years of modern capitalism’s existence? What if we’re entering an era of geometrically accelerating technological advance in which artificial intelligence, robotics and nanotechnology will together pose much more profound threats to jobs, wages and social stability than has commonly been imagined? And what if it’s not just the “unskilled” who are at risk, but most of us?
That’s the unsettling scenario sketched by computer engineer and software entrepreneur Martin Ford in his cautionary book, “The Lights in The Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology, and The Economy of the Future.” It’s the most provocative 2009 book you’ll read in 2013.
As with the ABSOLUTE MUST VIEW 60 Minutes segment which appeared on CBS January 13, 2013 (http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5699), the subject of this article is and will impact your future livelihood and that of your children and grandchildren! The article though fails to point to the obvious solution, which is to connect EVERY American with ownership in the corporate productive capital assets represented by “robotics and digital computerized operations” and benefit from the income derived as Americans become the future “customers with money” to purchase the products and services that the “robotics and digital computerized operations” produce.
The master plan for this paradigm shift in the structure of the American economy can be accomplished with the adoption and implementation of the the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm andhttp://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm
Please see my article “Democratic Capitalism And Binary Economics: Solutions For A Troubled Nation and Economy” at http://foreconomicjustice.org/11/economic-justice/ or follow me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/For-Economic-Justice/347893098576250 and http://www.facebook.com/editorgary
Also please see my article “The Absent Conversation: Who Should Own America?” published by The Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/who-should-own-america_b_2040592.html
As my colleague Dave Hamill notes, Mike Wallace interviewed Mortimer Adler on 60 Minutes in 1958 and followed-up with binary economist Louis Kelso on another 60 Minutes segment, and very few listened to the wisdom within those pieces, and very few listened to the wisdom within that piece. Nor did we listen to Dr. King or Reagan on the issue of ownership of production or “peoples capitalism”. Now we still have the same economic system of 1958, or ’38, while manufacturing has evolved greatly, due to the capitalist law of efficiency. So what do we do now? Socialize? Eliminate money and adapt an RBE? That would require getting rid of the Bill of Rights. So come up with a new plan and form a new movement? That would take years to get off the ground. No, the only existing organized movement with a plan that transforms the economic system to end plutocratic monopoly capitalism and end fiat boom-and-bust currency.. while preserving individual liberties is the Coalition for Capital Homesteading. After you read Gary’s educational links go to our activism site at capitalhomestead.org and join us. OWN OR BE OWNED! Empower all citizens with ownership of new technologies! Attend our annual rally in DC April 26, 2013!
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-09/opinions/36233090_1_egg-nog-technology-robots
