The Robot Revolution Is Here. Prepare for Workers to Revolt
27th July 2019
A Voice of the Crust emits an opinion that, until the 1960s, would have been derided by ‘progressives’ as reactionary.
According to a recent Pew Research survey, a staggering 85% of Americans support policies to restrict the rise of robots. We even have a presidential candidate in Andrew Yang running to protect jobs from automation.
Economists tend to dismiss anti-technology sentiment as backwards and Luddite. But they miss an important point. As I argue in my new book, The Technology Trap, The Luddites, who smashed machinery during the Industrial Revolution, were right to fight back. Much like today’s factory workers, they weren’t going to benefit from new technology.
‘Progressives’ have always viewed economics with their own particular moral squint. To them, the purpose of a business is not to make stuff as efficiently (and profitably) as possible, but rather to hire and pay workers (who will then vote reliably for ‘progressive’ candidates in order to preserve those jobs). Proglodytes don’t see workers as individuals but as a vast Marxist mass of Workers, each of which can be substituted for any other — which, in Marx’s day, they were.