Dean Baker — Morning Edition Tells Us That Most Workers Think Like Most Economists and Don't Worry About Automation

Productivity growth (the rate at which technology is displacing workers) had slowed to roughly 1.0 percent annually in the years since 2005. This compares to a 3.0 percent growth rate in the decade from 1995 to 2005 and the long Golden Age from 1947 to 1973. Most economists expect the rate of productivity growth to remain near 1.0 percent as opposed to returning back to something close to its 3.0 percent rate in more prosperous times.… 

It is also worth noting that the high productivity growth in the period from 1947 to 1973 was associated with low unemployment and rapid wage growth. If another productivity upturn instead leads to high unemployment and weak wage growth it will be the result of deliberate policy to shift the benefits of productivity growth to those at the top end of the income distribution (e.g. government granted patent and copyright monopolies, high interest rates by the Fed, and trade policy that protects doctors and other highly paid professionals from competition -- all discussed in Rigged [it's free]). It will not be the fault of the robots.

As usual the issue is distribution, discussion of which most conventional economists take off the table as taboo.

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Morning Edition Tells Us That Most Workers Think Like Most Economists and Don't Worry About Automation
Dean Baker | Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C