John F. Kennedy Quotes
We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.
Kennedy, John F. "Address in Miami Beach to the AFL-CIO Convention." Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, United States Government Printing Office, 1962, p. 793.
One problem critics have with his argument is that while there is always work to be done, there are not always entities willing to pay for the additional work. Gains in productivity will justify investment in more rapid deployment of technology; thus entities in society are will to invest the funds. But if there is no visible economic return from the additional work, corporations and taxpayers may be unwilling to fund it leading to massive unemployment and instability.
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.
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.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his work as president concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress prior to becoming president.
