There is no such thing as killing all jobs because there is always more work to do. Yet, even if we ran out of work to do, who cares? A job is a means to an end, not an end in itself. I wouldn't mind living in a world where robots do all the work, and I can just have fun.
When people complain about technology killing jobs, I like to point out that they are essentially arguing against EZpass and other electronic highway toll payment technologies. How would you like to go back to waiting in line so that a human can collect money from each car? That would certainly create a lot of jobs.
But that's not the end of the story. When technology kills less productive jobs, like telephone operators, it also creates new, higher-paying technology jobs. It may be painful in the short run for those who lose their job, but eventually those people can get other jobs that are more productive, with the benefit that the creative destruction of technology will continue to make life cheaper and easier. Ex-telephone operators will have cheaper cars built by robots, ex-car manufacturers will have cheaper phone calls, etc.
Yes, they will need to develop new skills, but it's just a fact of life that you have to bring something to the table. Why else would anyone trade with you?
People rarely consider the alternative. Instead of focusing on adding a tax burden on Amazon, why not push to get rid of the taxes on traditional book stores? Then books will be cheaper everywhere.
Nothing has objective or inherent value. Some muddy water on the side of the road seems worthless to those walking by but would be priceless to someone dying of thirst. The price of something changes based on the subjective values of everyone participating in the market.
That is why there is little math in economic science. People assign ordinal values to things (item 1 is more valuable to me than item 2), but not cardinal numbers (item 1 is worth X). The price of something is not an objective value, nor even an average subjective value, but merely a historical fact that specifies at what price something sold for in a specific exchange. Consider how shares of the same stock can sell at wildly different prices at essentially the same time.
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If you think "assault weapons" are only for killing people, then you've never shot one.
Video mentioned in TFA
There is no such thing as killing all jobs because there is always more work to do. Yet, even if we ran out of work to do, who cares? A job is a means to an end, not an end in itself. I wouldn't mind living in a world where robots do all the work, and I can just have fun.
When people complain about technology killing jobs, I like to point out that they are essentially arguing against EZpass and other electronic highway toll payment technologies. How would you like to go back to waiting in line so that a human can collect money from each car? That would certainly create a lot of jobs.
But that's not the end of the story. When technology kills less productive jobs, like telephone operators, it also creates new, higher-paying technology jobs. It may be painful in the short run for those who lose their job, but eventually those people can get other jobs that are more productive, with the benefit that the creative destruction of technology will continue to make life cheaper and easier. Ex-telephone operators will have cheaper cars built by robots, ex-car manufacturers will have cheaper phone calls, etc.
Yes, they will need to develop new skills, but it's just a fact of life that you have to bring something to the table. Why else would anyone trade with you?
People rarely consider the alternative. Instead of focusing on adding a tax burden on Amazon, why not push to get rid of the taxes on traditional book stores? Then books will be cheaper everywhere.
http://www.lpphilly.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/egypt.jpg
Nothing has objective or inherent value. Some muddy water on the side of the road seems worthless to those walking by but would be priceless to someone dying of thirst. The price of something changes based on the subjective values of everyone participating in the market.
That is why there is little math in economic science. People assign ordinal values to things (item 1 is more valuable to me than item 2), but not cardinal numbers (item 1 is worth X). The price of something is not an objective value, nor even an average subjective value, but merely a historical fact that specifies at what price something sold for in a specific exchange. Consider how shares of the same stock can sell at wildly different prices at essentially the same time.