Andrew Yang: Yes, Robots Are Stealing Your Job(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
Andrew Yang: Yes, Robots Are Stealing Your Job
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/opinion/andrew-yang-jobs.html
1 comments
Where is he wrong though? Self-driving trucks WILL be terrible for millions of truck drivers. Self serve fast food kiosks? Self checkout? Automation isn't coming, it's HERE, that's his point. Freedom dividend won't be a handout for the lazy paid for by the working, it's paid for by these robots putting those people out of work
Unemployment rate is one of the government's many statistical lies. Outside of the major metros, levels of unemployment and underemployment are obviously much much higher. Even in places where jobs are plentiful, 3.6% is a thick fat lie. Look at all the hobos in SF!
"does not have the right" is a value judgement rather than point of fact. If we step away from values, and return to empiricals, we already have AI that will smoke the best of radiologists. Will the radiologists be sidelined like the truckers? I'll bet money that they lobby for regulatory "protections", and get them.
To reduce this to econometrics and arrive at a "let them eat cake" policy will have undesirable second-order consequences. Letting that many people suck it is the well-worn path to an FDR (or worse), and all of the nastyness that entails.
"does not have the right" is a value judgement rather than point of fact. If we step away from values, and return to empiricals, we already have AI that will smoke the best of radiologists. Will the radiologists be sidelined like the truckers? I'll bet money that they lobby for regulatory "protections", and get them.
To reduce this to econometrics and arrive at a "let them eat cake" policy will have undesirable second-order consequences. Letting that many people suck it is the well-worn path to an FDR (or worse), and all of the nastyness that entails.
Language matters. Someone who earns a living today driving a truck does not have the right to earn a living that way in the future if the market changes. Self-driving trucks are not "stealing" something from him. We all need to adapt as labor markets change.
The current unemployment rate is 3.6%, near a record low. Unemployment can be kept low by reducing labor market frictions and removing disincentives to work. We don't need a massive federal handout such as a Universal Basic Income, funded by people who are working.