Adapting to Technological Unemployment Requires a Shift in Values

Nick Simpson

September, 2018

Advancements in technology are likely to result in massive unemployment in the future. Adapting to this is going to require that we change the way we think about the value of our fellow citizens, and to realize that having a job is not the only way to be a productive member of society.

Technological unemployment, the phenomenon where new technology takes the place of human labor, has been a concern since before the industrial revolution. Until recently, the majority of experts have argued that, in the long term, technological unemployment is not something to worry about. Since the turn of the 21st century, advancements in computing, and especially artificial intelligence (AI), have disrupted this consensus, and many experts now warn that a major upset of the world’s job market may be closer than we think. AI’s ability to identify patterns and build on its successes means that it’s not just routine manufacturing jobs that are now at risk. Fields that require people to look at lots of data and draw conclusions, such as radiology or accounting, are ripe for an AI take over.  

As advancements in technology continue to remake existing industries, unemployment is going to rise. People will be pushed out of jobs that robots and AI can do better, faster, and cheaper. In the short term, this job loss might be mitigated by government jobs programs or by an expansion of industries not already dependent on vulnerable labor. In the long term, there simply will not be enough jobs available for everyone who wants one. This is going to be a massive shift in the way in which society and the economy operate, and it’s going to require us to change the way we think about work to survive it.

Currently, everyone wants to keep the rate of unemployment as low as possible, and no one wants to be unemployed. This is because, in the past, having a large workforce was essential to the economic wellbeing of a nation. People who did not work and who were supported by the government were seen as a drain on the system. The rise of technological unemployment shows that this is no longer the case. Machines that need less and do more are creating a new period of plenty, where value is being created more efficiently than ever before. This boon, this technologically derived value, means that, in the future, not only will many people not be able to find jobs, but they will not need to. The country will not need everyone to be working in order to run smoothly.

This high rate of unemployment will require the government to provide financial assistance, something like a universal basic income, or a negative income tax. And although this will certainly necessitate a change in society, it is not the biggest one that the nation will face.

The biggest shift that the country will have to undergo is not one of government policy, but of society’s attitude towards employment as a whole. For society to survive the tech-takeover of the labor market, it is going to have to be okay to be unemployed. This is going to be harder than it sounds.

The stigma towards those who are unemployed runs deep in American society. We are a country that wants anyone over the age of eighteen to either go to college or get a job. Often times, one job is not enough, and people who are forced to go from a nine-to-five to moonlighting for Uber or delivering food are praised for their ‘hustle’. More work is always better, and people will brag about how long it’s been since they’ve taken a sick day or a vacation. Changing this attitude is going to be a long and arduous process, but it is essential to the success of a society undergoing technological unemployment.

Even once money is taken care of, jobs are supposed to provide another essential benefit to those who have them, a sense of purpose. People want to feel as though what they do matters, and is having a positive effect in the world. Many would argue that jobs are essential because they give this to people, that gainful employment is the only way to feel as though you are doing something productive with your days. Luckily, this is not true. Most people already do things that give them purpose, their hobbies. A hobby is basically another word for work that doesn’t make any money. The real hurdle isn’t finding tasks that people can do to fill their time and feel useful, it’s changing our attitudes about what is and isn’t ‘productive’ and being okay with being someone who doesn’t make a lot of money, or any at all.