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Yet when McDonald’s announced that they were going to use robots, I listened in amazement when an
NPR reporter questioned the first McDonald’s store manager to use this automation. The reporter’s
agenda was clearly to get the manager to admit that he was eliminating jobs and thereby increasing
human unemployment. To the extent that the reporter succeeded in impressing his point upon the
audience, he also succeeded in spreading misinformation as to the effects of automation on the
economy. If you listen to Alan Greenspan talk about the same factors, he celebrates the increase in
productivity that accompanies the increasing use of automation. Dr. Greenspan is a politician and uses
words that avoid implying that jobs are being eliminated.
It is clear that water pumps and water supply lines under our streets are a large part of the separation of
our living standards from those of a poor African woman who might spend half of a day just obtaining
enough water for her family. Given this, why do we employ reporters like Bob Edwards who, out of
under-educated intuition, persists on implying that the use of automation is harmful to workers? Does
he want us to live in a society in which humans carry water to create more jobs? Why can’t we educate
our reporters so that they understand that the quality of life goes up every time we use automation to
replace human workers as in the example of telephone operators or our water supply?
Continue
NPR reporter questioned the first McDonald’s store manager to use this automation. The reporter’s
agenda was clearly to get the manager to admit that he was eliminating jobs and thereby increasing
human unemployment. To the extent that the reporter succeeded in impressing his point upon the
audience, he also succeeded in spreading misinformation as to the effects of automation on the
economy. If you listen to Alan Greenspan talk about the same factors, he celebrates the increase in
productivity that accompanies the increasing use of automation. Dr. Greenspan is a politician and uses
words that avoid implying that jobs are being eliminated.
It is clear that water pumps and water supply lines under our streets are a large part of the separation of
our living standards from those of a poor African woman who might spend half of a day just obtaining
enough water for her family. Given this, why do we employ reporters like Bob Edwards who, out of
under-educated intuition, persists on implying that the use of automation is harmful to workers? Does
he want us to live in a society in which humans carry water to create more jobs? Why can’t we educate
our reporters so that they understand that the quality of life goes up every time we use automation to
replace human workers as in the example of telephone operators or our water supply?
Continue