David Rothkopf Quotes
Massive increases in productivity due to the happy marriage if information technology and advanced manufacturing techniques are having a chilling, unprecedented effect on job creations.
David Rothkopf, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Executive Editor, Foreign Policy, “The Third Industrial Revolution”, Foreign Policy, November 2012
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Computers, robots have replaced many more American workers than those who lost their jobs by having them replaced by foreign labor. Ironically, even in counties like China, South Korea, and a number of others, have "liost" millions of jobs to automation thenselves.
Technology has always displaced and replaced workers, but most industrial technological breakthroughs, in the long run, have created new jobs and better paid ones. What worried Gompers did not appear to materialize in his lifetime, but actually became and issue on the later years of the 20th century and the early 21st century where the computer the robot, and the sophisticated software began to replace workers at a faster rate than new opportunities were created. Gompers was one of the harbingers of things to come.
His 50 year prediction was a little too optimistic although a large percentage of the routine, and some non-routine, jobs had become automated especially in the automobile and other manufacturing arenas, and many other fields. But there were still some other jobs that were still being done without machines in 2014. Asimov was essentially right but a little early in his timing.
The Grammar Curmudgeon
The implication is that we will be able to have cheaper products and cheaper services plus there will be less need for human efforts and few jobs needed and available.
One of the arguments in favor of machinery and automation has always been that new and better jobs are created for the people who run and maintain the machines. However as Marx observed in 1867 that is of no comfort to the person who is replaced by the machine. Also with the computer and modern robots, the control and operation is often done by another computer. Even much of the computer programming is done by computer.
In the Great Recession, the industrial production had improved much by 2012—the 4th year of the Obama administration. However, technology and automation were displacing workers. At the time, the U. S. was producing the same amount as before the Great Recession only it was being done with 5 million fewer workers.
We think of jobs being eliminated when technology is employed as a modern problem. But here, in 1936, automation was eliminating jobs rapidly. One fascinating difference is that Mrs. Roosevelt observes that the laborers jobs are eliminated and the high school and college graduates can run the enterprise. 75 years after this quotation, the jobs of the high school graduates were being eliminated and some higher education was necessary for most jobs. As technology improves, the workers who are necessary require more and more education.
David J. Rothkopf is a professor of international relations, political scientist and journalist. He is the founder and CEO of The Rothkopf Group, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a visiting professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, a prolific author, and podcast host of Deep State Radio.
