Is Technology Taking Away Jobs

… and if so, should we let it?

Technology taking jobs is a constant topic of discussion. We might think of it from recent events such as Chat GPT and other forms of Artificial Intelligence taking jobs away from copywriters, artist, etc. However, this discussion as been going on for years.

You might has how many years. 5? 10? 20? It actually goes well further back than that.

Sabotage

While there is some argument as to the origin of the word Sabotage, one of the beliefs is that the word, or at least meaning, came from the textile industry in the early 19th century. In 1801, the Jacquard Loom was invented. It used punch cards to make weaving faster, easier, and allow for complexities that a human may not be able to handle. This, it was an early form of a machine with new technology putting humans out of work.

In response, supposedly workers threw their wooden shoes, called sabots, into the machinery to break it. Hence the term Sabotage.

Another, more likely belief is that Sabotage came from rural workers who came in to break the strike of the city workers. However, it still dealt with the fear or losing one’s job. A common fear that many people have, even if they don’t like their job.

Cars and Horses

Before cars, many people walked, or if you were lucky, rode on a horse. “In 1890 there were 13,800 companies in the United States in the business of building carriages pulled by horses. By 1920, only 90 such companies remained.” — https://blogs.microsoft.com/today-in-tech/day-horse-lost-job/

Why was there such a drastic change in a mere 30 years. Well, much of it was because of the advent of the car, and the assembly line which Ford pioneered which allowed cars to be made more efficiently and cheaper. It went from being slow and expensive to relatively speedy and much cheaper.

But this meant that many companies went out of business. Not only companies building carriages, but also barns, raising food for the horses, and cleaning up after them. How much cleanup was necessary? In 1908, New York’s 120,000 horses produced a pungent 60,000 gallons of urine and 2.5 million pounds of manure every day on the city’s streets. Mike Wallace, Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 245.

Of course, when they started making “horseless carriages” people would often ridicule the inventors and owners – much like any new technology today. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/01/get-horse-americas-skepticism-toward-first-automobiles/

Other Jobs Lost to Technology

However, there have been other jobs which have been replaced by technology. Either in that it allowed a non-trained person to do it (Elevator operator, secretary as examples), or technology has flat out replaced them.

• Switch Board Operators
• Pin Boys
• Scribes
• Town Crier
• Lamp Lighter

Other jobs have been going away due to technology. And while some might always exist, they will be more of a rarity.

• Bank Tellers
• Travel Agents
• Pick & Pull Warehouse
• Factory Workers

So the question becomes, is it OK, or even good for technologies to replace people’s jobs? Are we worse off because we don’t have town criers anymore? How about switch board operators? How does one weigh the good to society vs the bad to the individual. Think about what our society would be like if we didn’t allow ourselves to switch to cars for fear of putting carriage makers out of work.

Often technology allows for faster and more reliable operation, but at the cost of a person’s livelihood. How does one weigh that choice? This is going to be an important question as technology is moving at even a faster pace now, and risking putting more people out of work. Here are some samples of jobs which might disappear, or be reduced, in the (near) future:

• (Entry Level) Software Developers
• Accountants
• Teachers
• Taxi Cab Drivers
• Proof Readers
• Writers
• Fast Food Workers
• …and more…

Is Technology Taking Away Jobs was originally found on Access 2 Learn