Jobs-Part 1: Automation
Whatever happened to all the elevator operators, telephone
switchboard operators, cabbage pickers and tollbooth collectors? These and many
thousands of other jobs have been eliminated by automation technology. On the bright
side, we can now directly dial almost any phone in the world and not have to
worry about watching our seconds on long distance calls. But, these are jobs,
for you and your neighbors, that will never come back.
Our losing so many jobs to machines is not the end of the
world or the end of work, but it is traumatic. The changing nature of work (and
availability of jobs) will create some economic challenges. You see senior
citizens sacking groceries when they would rather be holding their grandbabies
or nursing their bunions. You see college graduates assembling grease-burgers
(hold the ketchup) when they would rather be building their families and paying
off their student loans.
We’ve gone through this before. Whatever happened to
tanners, weavers, cobblers, and blacksmiths? Those were the days of craftsmen,
apprentices, and hand-carved ornamentation on furniture. You could tell who had
made a piece by the personal touches in its design. You took care of what you
owned because you knew that years of experience, hours of labor and, sometimes,
sweat and blood went into its production.
