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this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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Believe it or not, there actually was an effort to block electric lighting. Because it was someone’s job to walk around the neighborhoods and light all of the streetlights. And “protect the jobs” has historically been a really awful argument against technology.
An economist visits a site where a canal is being dug. He asks the foreman why the workers are digging with shovels, when a diesel-powered excavator could do the work of a hundred men. The foreman explains that the canal is a jobs project.
The economist exclaims, "Why didn't you say that it was a jobs project earlier?! These men should be digging with spoons!"
Has the argument been awful, or just the outcome?
I mean, when have those who lost their jobs due to technological obsolescence actually been looked after directly, rather than left to fend for themselves?
Historically speaking, new technologies tend to create more new jobs than they destroy.
Sure, but did those jobs go to those who lost theirs? And as others have pointed out, not always and forever. Just logically speaking a lot of automation at best will "free" people to pursue other things, and so could boost creativity and innovation... But people need freedom and financial security for that to be possible.
In short, I'm shilling for UBI, guaranteed minimum income and other socialist programmed to spread the value gain from technology back into the community.
There was a time that that statement applied to horses as well
Won't anybody think of the blacksmiths and stable boys!
TIL horses worked as blacksmiths and stable boys
There are many heart breaking accounts from those days where horses were driven to prostitution and other desperate measures to make ends meet.
The fuck are you on about?
That was pretty cool job, though.