First, with all of the automation that already has transpired in the United States, and in the world, where exactly is the evidence that it is resulting in application of people to more demanding uses of their intellect?
In response to automation, we have Lyft and Uber as new highly valued innovations. If cars still had manual shifts, we perhaps could argue that driving for Uber or Lyft represents some application of skill that does not destroy engines in cars.
In presence of automatic shifts, driving cannot be considered a skill, merely is a capacity.
So then, we have White kids learning coding, a skill set that has been a widely available skill set since the 1990s. We have kids returning to live with their parents, because their gig incomes are unable to support independent living. We have increase in income disparity between the haves and the have nots. We have increase in anxiety, and depression, and dependence on drugs.
Where exactly is the evidence that automation is inducing applications of intellect to higher valued activities?
Regardless of all of the foregoing, are we making the argument that people who live in small towns and cities do not deserve good manufacturing jobs that replace all of the jobs that have been lost to outsourcing?
Are we saying that so long as people in large cities are doing fine, those who live in small towns and cities do not matter, are insignificant?
A society that becomes more technologically advanced, and at the same time begins to think that it is okay to leave some people behind is headed for a really, really bad equilibrium.
The reason we have a glut of people, as such are producing a gig economy is because the economy is directing too many people to jobs that do not yet exist.
Is it not better to have more diversity of jobs for arrival at jobs that actually provide a good living, than for people to listlessly hope for arrival of new types of jobs?
My post focused on manufacturing jobs because those were the sorts of jobs that Donald Trump promised to blue collar America — the segment of American society that enabled him win Office of President of the United States.
