One of the main issues that arise in a time of innovations and changes increasingly fast-paced is the effect of technology on employment. How will this affect the life of people? What is the impact on careers and business? The technology improves or worsens the prospects of employment of the population?
The discussion is complex, and started long time ago. By itself, this is already a relevant element to be analyzed carefully: this debate is not new. During virtually the entire History of Civilization, new technologies precipitated changes and, consequently, a discussion of the effect on the workforce.
Aristotle, Ancient Greek philosopher, wrote that "the servants are an instrument that should be prioritized before all other instruments," and pointed out that, if there was a way to perform a particular job without human interference, this shape would be chosen, freeing up people for other activities. The governments of various civilizations ancient sought ways of occupying the unemployed population in function of any technical innovation, reaching the extreme to reject or prohibit any innovation that impactasse the labour market. According to economist and historian Robert Heilbroner, during the Middle Ages, people who tried to negotiate or promote the goods that could be classified as "innovative" were performed as the worst offenders.
The movement Luddite, occurred in England during the First Industrial Revolution, joined workers who were seeing their labor be replaced by machines – and inspired the current Neoludismo, philosophy which basically is opposed to technological development. The origin of the word "sabotage", some say, is the term "sabot" – a wooden shoes that workers of the late EIGHTEENTH and early NINETEENTH century played in the industrial machinery to break them.
in This environment was born the science of modern economic and begins a debate that to this day remains without answer: there is "technological unemployment"? On one side, names such as Robert Malthus and Karl Marx argued that yes, and another Charles Babbage (one of the most important figures in the history of computing), and Jean-Baptiste Say ("supply creates its own demand") said that not. Over the following century, the discussion continued, but the evidence pointed to a positive vision of the future in spite of two world wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945): in general, the technological progress was improving the quality of life of all social classes, both workers and bosses.
In the last years of the last century, the expansion of the process of globalisation has led many thinkers, economists, and journalists to consider their effects in the medium and long term – and again the innovation and automation are at the heart of the debate in function of their potential impacts on the labour market. In 1996, two european journalists (Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schumann) published "The Trap of Globalization", arguing that only 20% of the economically active population would be enough to keep the world economy functioning – forcing governments to support the other 80%. The book "The End of Jobs", 1995, economist the north-american Jeremy Rifkin also anticipates the elimination of millions of jobs in light of technological innovations, and the growth of the sector of voluntary services supported by the government.
Until today, innovation has been the catalyst of so-called "creative destruction" – that is, the jobs are not eliminated, but rather transferred to other sectors (for example, in the agricultural sector – which was extremely automated – to the services sector). But there are those who believe that this scenario is about to change – for the worse. This will be our theme next week. Up there.
No comments:
Post a Comment