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A point about technology making "new" jobs.

A lot of people seem to think this means MORE jobs...it doesn't. It means NEW, jobs that didn't exist before, but not MORE. In fact, that is the express purpose of developing technology, to reduce the amount of effort (work) it takes to do things.

Oh, but why are there more jobs now then there used to be? Well, there are more people. And on average, we have way more stuff then we ever used to have. Demand has been driven by population growth and increased access to goods and services. And technology helps us try to meet that demand by making our work way more efficient.

Even technology like the telephone that we all take for granted eliminates work. We can communicate with people on the other side of the planet WITHOUT a courier carrying message the entire way, taking months of time and requiring food, lodging, and supplies. We can send billions of messages around the world every day, WITHOUT the billions of couriers and their support networks that would have been required to do it. Instead, a handful of tech professionals with some satellites and dish receivers can facilitate all of it.

Don't get me wrong, technology is great! I'm just saying, it makes NEW jobs, not MORE jobs. Nobody would use it if it multiplied the amount of work it takes to do something.
Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
True enough.

The thing that annoys most of us over 50 is the fact that politicians and scientists back in the 60's promised us an 'Age of automation' where my generation (and all those that followed) would have to find other things to do with our time since most jobs were thought to be automated by now.

Mobile phones ?.....In all honesty, when did this become a 'necessity' in life ?
Employers abuse such technology on an hourly basis some days (in my experience anyway)

Irony being, we STILL have the SAME problems we had BACK THEN, only NOW local politicians have 'killed' the high-street shopping experience with their demands for ever higher rents.
Good news for the likes of Amazon. Bad news for their employees.

Advances in medications have helped people live longer
Bad news if you want to get an appointment with your doctor since there are fewer of them !

The Internet is a fantastic method for communicating ideas and solutions to human problems.
Yet Bad news when those supplying the sites on which to communicate it demand to be able to abuse your identity via selling your personal details to anybody willing to pay THEM for the privilege !
If anything, the jobs are lessened. Weonly have to look at 'the Industrial Revolution' for an example. The 'new' jobs that are created are for a select few which deprives the work-force of themembers needed to manipulate the old technologies.
Xuan12 · 31-35, M
@EugenieLaBorgia That is another point. Technology makes new jobs, and also eliminates old ones. How many professional fletchers, or pinsetters, or lectors are still in existence? Practically none!
@Xuan12 Absolutely true!
revenant · F
Not everybody is meant for technology. Lots of art oriented people have already disappeared.
Xuan12 · 31-35, M
@revenant I have noticed many techniques evolving or even dying out.
revenant · F
@Xuan12 it is a pity. Originality is dying.
UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M
Honestly, technology has made art more viable than it has ever been in the past. Both traditional and digital. The methods have simply changed. That's not to say it is [i]easy[/i] to pursue an artistic career, but it used to be effectively completely reliant on luck in finding a patron of the arts. That is no longer the case. The amount of art produced currently is pretty incredible.

 
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