This is how I see it. I'm not trying to flame a debate here.
Technology isn't the reason why people are losing their jobs. Politicts are. The Politics of a society is what ultimatly desides how the production surplus from a society is being used. If you use the extra production that an increase in efficiancy provides to improve the living conditions of the workers that produce all this, you could for example reduce the amount of working hours of the week. This would be the logical thing to do if the workers them self owned the means of production (i think most of you recognice what i'm talking about).
But as it is today, most companys are owned and run by private interests that want to make a profit of this in the form of capital. They more and more often, and to a larger extent, don't use this profit to reinvest in the company (or society for that matter). Instead they use this to achieve even more capital through different kinds of speculation. The society as whole only gets a piece of this pie through the government taxes (wich are more and more being cut to ensure more freedom for capital, wich doesn't often lead to more investments). When the production efficiancy increases in a company with capatalist owners, the owners usually doesn't use this to increase the living standards of the workers (improved working conditions, less working hours, better salary etc.). Instead they use it to increase profits, by removing jobs that isn't any longer needed to achieve the same level of production. This is the problem.
If the people, through society, had more control of how the surplus caused by increased production, either by owning the means of production or by passing laws that gave the workers and society more control and back them with the strength of the many, this, IMHO, could be remedied.
I know this is an old idea (Whasen't there a dude named Marx that had a similar idea:-), but everytime this has been somewhat implemented in a DEMOCRATIC society it has worked.
(please don't call me troll and chase me into the woods, I have heard horrible stories about how some americans treats socialists)
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This is how I see it. I'm not trying to flame a debate here. Technology isn't the reason why people are losing their jobs. Politicts are. The Politics of a society is what ultimatly desides how the production surplus from a society is being used. If you use the extra production that an increase in efficiancy provides to improve the living conditions of the workers that produce all this, you could for example reduce the amount of working hours of the week. This would be the logical thing to do if the workers them self owned the means of production (i think most of you recognice what i'm talking about). But as it is today, most companys are owned and run by private interests that want to make a profit of this in the form of capital. They more and more often, and to a larger extent, don't use this profit to reinvest in the company (or society for that matter). Instead they use this to achieve even more capital through different kinds of speculation. The society as whole only gets a piece of this pie through the government taxes (wich are more and more being cut to ensure more freedom for capital, wich doesn't often lead to more investments). When the production efficiancy increases in a company with capatalist owners, the owners usually doesn't use this to increase the living standards of the workers (improved working conditions, less working hours, better salary etc.). Instead they use it to increase profits, by removing jobs that isn't any longer needed to achieve the same level of production. This is the problem. If the people, through society, had more control of how the surplus caused by increased production, either by owning the means of production or by passing laws that gave the workers and society more control and back them with the strength of the many, this, IMHO, could be remedied. I know this is an old idea (Whasen't there a dude named Marx that had a similar idea :-), but everytime this has been somewhat implemented in a DEMOCRATIC society it has worked.
(please don't call me troll and chase me into the woods, I have heard horrible stories about how some americans treats socialists)