This crap below never wants to go out of style:
“Mechanization, increased efficiency and technological development cause unemployment, because fewer workers need to produce the same amount.”
The invention of the steam locomotive revolutionized freight transport as we know it. It required far fewer people and man-hours to get the goods to their destination. Can we then say that the invention of the steam locomotive was a disaster???
Because a product or service can be produced with less labor, the better off everyone in the world is. Contrary to popular belief and communist/regressive nationalist brainwashing, this process does not cause unemployment (only in the short term at most), but it will directly result in a labor shortage. Why?
As a result of mechanization and the need for less labor, the price of the product drops drastically. For this reason, all those who buy the product get the product at a much cheaper price. Because of this, they either buy much more of it, which creates jobs (a, case), or if they don’t need more of the given product, they spend the money saved on something else, and then there will be a need for more jobs (b, case).
In other words, the demand for labor does not decrease, it just transforms.
Example of case “a”: Henry Ford developed the assembly line, as a result of which much less labor was needed to produce the mobile car, so its price was drastically reduced. What happened?
In reality, a hundred times as many car factory workers were suddenly needed, as the demand for cars increased a thousandfold, as they became so cheap that everyone could buy min. one, while before they were so expensive that only millionaires could afford them. So, in addition, it was not necessary to produce 20 cars per year, but 20,000, which required 100 times more workers even with a 10-fold increase in productivity.
Example for case “b”: When the food costs half as much at the supermarket as at the local producer, the consumer will not buy twice as much food, but will keep half of his food budget. You can spend this money on other things: travel, TV, car, home renovation, etc. So the demand for workers in these areas increases, so jobs are created, simply by being able to get food (or anything) cheaper.
The local producer may go bankrupt, but all other industries flourish instead, where the former peasant also finds his calculations. So fewer workers are needed JUST FOR THAT AREA, but much more for the others.
So what creates jobs, in other words work? The DEMAND! AND THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE ARE ENDLESS!!!
So, even if all products fell from the sky and people didn’t have to manufacture anything, it wouldn’t cause even a single bit of unemployment, because THERE IS NO SUCH A WAY THAT MAN WOULD BE INDISPENSABLE!!!
If there is no demand for manufacturers, due to mechanization, there will be demand for e.g. for masseurs, beauticians, cartoonists, gardeners, etc. with which the hitherto dormant creativity and demand in people comes to the surface, as people will suddenly free up a lot of their strength, time and money due to mechanization, AND EVERYONE WILL LIVE BETTER!!!
In other words, the work to be done on Earth is not a static quantity, but a constant variable depending on the overall conditions! If the efficiency increases, the amount of work will not decrease, but WILL INCREASE!!!
But let’s suppose that the world that everyone fears comes one day and everything from gardening to the beauty industry is done by machines, so absolutely everything including the repair of machines and the most complicated medical interventions and the diagnosis of diseases, all without error, that is, the world will come , when people will be indispensable and there will be no need for human labor. Although I think this is a logical impossibility, as I proved above, let’s assume it for the sake of the thought experiment. What can happen in such a world?
One thing is certain, because human labor will not be needed due to mechanization, the opposite is also true, so people will no longer need work and everyone will get everything for free, since machines work for free. In this world, no one has to work, but everyone can enjoy their hobbies and pastimes in their freed up working time. I emphasize that this is a theoretical world where EVERYTHING is done by machines. I seriously do not understand the fears of philosophers and economists, because this world itself would be CANAAN!!!
Everyone could take whatever they wanted for free without the slightest effort, any other assumption would require human necessity. Even with an unemployment rate of 100%, this would collectively lead to a 1000% increase in the standard of living and productivity, because if we reached zero costs (all costs are human labor and time), we would achieve the long-desired free lunch and for the first time in history we would not have to work for anything.
It’s a pity that this world will never come, despite the greatest fears, because human intelligence will never be indispensable, and people will never work for free, unlike machines. Of course, even if this were to come to Canaan and someone were to accept my above arguments, even today, there would still be some virtuous hypocrites who would see the cause of the problem in this and would moralize against the mechanization that is “emasculating” humanity, not now about the problem of unemployment invoking, but to spoil the character.
Well, I ask, if one day a society, or even the entire human race, could achieve that utopia, which, by the way, it will never know, it would not deserve it, just as an old man who has struggled through his life deserves his work the fruit of a peaceful old age? After all, this is what this world would bring.
Anyways thanks for reading!