Why in gods name would anybody pursue any of this if it resulted in the same amount of jobs, except the new jobs cost a company more money than the old ones? That is completely and utterly delusional.
That's not what it's saying. It's saying that, as usual, productivity gains lead to new wealth, which produces new jobs as a result. E.g., the automation that allowed us to mechanize agriculture allowed laborers to move into other industries that were also being automated, where they could be more productive.
And we should assume that there is an infinite number of industries for humans to constantly move onto why? It's not like there is a law of the universe that says there must always be more industries for humans to move once another industry became obsolete. Some may successfully move into other industries. Others will just develop a drug habit or commit suicide. Fun facts: once the internet started becoming pervasive in the very early 2000s, the labor participation rate went down soon after, and suicides went up at about the same time. Both trends have held since.
crdoconnor|6 years ago
astazangasta|6 years ago
ranci|6 years ago