Automation will bring growth, but history tells us labour’s share of national income will decline
The World Bank has a reassuring message for those fearful of being made obsolete by automation. The robot age is nothing to be worried about. Just like all previous waves of technological advance, the fourth industrial revolution will create rather than destroy jobs, so fears of mass unemployment are largely unfounded.
Nor should we be concerned that the arrival of the new machine age is going to widen the gap between rich and poor, because the idea that the world is becoming a less equal place is more perception than reality.
Automation, according to the bank’s World Development Report, is an opportunity not a threat. Sure, some jobs will go but others will be created to meet a range of future needs of which we are currently unaware. Since automation cannot be stopped, governments need to do two things. Brain-up their populations through investment in education so that they have the necessary skills for the robot age, and reduce the burdens on business by getting rid of harmful labour laws and restrictions. The need for greater deregulation to prevent companies choosing to use robots rather than humans is a constant theme.
In essence, the World Bank has come up with a rehashed form of trickle-down theory that Margaret Thatcher would happily have endorsed. Private companies should be allowed to do whatever they consider is in their own best interests, and politicians should get out of the way.
The Guardian
1 comment:
If we had had ethical finance, then robots would be much more broadly owned and thus much more a universal blessing.
But who believes in ethical finance?
Show of hands?
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