Automation often seems like a scary new problem, but it’s neither entirely scary nor entirely new.
In this interview about his latest book, David Graeber discusses the role of unions, the challenges posed by automation and “the revolt of the caring classes.”
This week I am going to talk about trade unions and automation, and why we should put the labour movements money into shaping automation for our use.
“We have regular emergencies on the buses,” said John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union. “Folks have heart attacks on buses, children get lost on buses. Every aspect of life in America, the bus and subway are microcosms of it. A robot’s not going to help."
America has a long, complicated track record of dreading that robots would take our jobs.
There is no evidence that automation leads to joblessness or inequality
“The lesson you get from the end of the Luddites is: Do the people that are profiting off automation today want to participate in distributing their profits more widely around the population, or are they going to fight just as hard as they did back then?”
Drawing from research in labor and economic history, this post evaluates the validity of each of these claims; overall, while it’s likely that automation will benefit socially aware individuals, it’s less likely to reduce the gender gap in employment.
Dutch dockworkers strike to stop job loss due to containerization and overcapacity.
Even the most expensively educated - Lawyers, radiologists and software designers, among others - have seen their work evaporate to India or China. Tasks that would seem to require a distinctively human capacity for nuance are increasingly assigned to algorithms, like the ones currently being introduced to grade essays on college exams.
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