News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, s... by tim333 on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @05:05AM (#10078169)
I'm not sure the number of jobs is that related to the amount of work needing to be done. It's more people like doing something and so will tend to do so. Otherwise as the number of people employed in agriculture dropped from like 70% to 2% over a couple of centuries it would of led to 68% sitting about. But instead they invent new things to do - say interior design or computer game design. Whether the person designing interiors counts as having a job or a hobby is down to whether people exchange money for the service which they tend to do in a way that is not terribly effected by what technology is involved.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out when robots get smart. My guess is people will still work on their novels, designing stuff, acting and the like.

Re:Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, s... by pliny on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @05:22AM (#10078215)
>It's more people like doing something and so will tend to do so

You're putting the cart before the horse (or I misunderstood you).

People have less they are required to do and use time they would have spent tending to their farm to ensure their survival, to pursue novelty and comfort instead.

But people aren't great at entertaining themselves, so a lot of people are employed in the business of entertaining others.

Comfort is also something that doesn't come easily, so a lot of people are employed in the business of doing menial tasks (like cooking and cleaning) for others, or producing furniture or machines that enhance our comfort.

Re:Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, s... by asgard1024 on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @05:38AM (#10078257)
> People have less they are required to do and use time they would have spent tending to their farm to ensure their survival, to pursue novelty and comfort instead.

Are you sure? Maybe what they are actually pursuing is trying to convince other people that some new job is sorely needed in the "new economy"?

Re:Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, s... by pliny on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @05:49AM (#10078287)
Dereference 'they' for me.

*People in what you quoted was intended to mean "anybody who would have been a farmer", so that's the 68% that have to find alternative employment.

I live in an apartment building, my rooms have air conditioning units, and I have a bed and a sofa and a refrigerator and lots of other things that improve my quality of life, and people had to build all of those things (including the building I live in and the rooms in the building and the power plant that runs all the stuff in my apartment and the buses and trains I use to get to places and the roads and track those drive on etc.), the labor and ingenuity required for all those things to exist comes from (I think) that 68%+ of people who were unemployed by technology, and those people also have their own things (homes and food and furniture and transportation), which they use to entertain themselves or make themselves more comfortable.

Re:Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, s... by asgard1024 on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @07:21AM (#10078567)
There are some sources that claim that medieval peasants in agricultural economy worked around 6 hours a day, and it was less than is standard today in the developed world.

Seeking leisure is a human nature, true. But maybe also human nature is to compete for resources, get more for your family, and make yourself more attractive to the other sex, even if that means working harder. If the alternative is unemployment, this may drive people to work in (or even create) services that they know are not really that useful.

Re:Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, s... by Mimu on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @05:19AM (#10078207)
If the only change is robots doing the jobs instead of people, my guess is most people will be starving to death on the streets.
Re:Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, s... by tim333 on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @06:17AM (#10078360)
You could get around the starving thing by the government taxing or owning the robots assuming they don't go all Terminator 2 on us.