Currently, a major concern in the United States among both politicians and citizens is the lack of a “middle class” which has been a symbol of economic strength in years’ past. People are unsure what the causes of this disappearance is, but there is a lot of economic data recently provided by U.S. Census Bureau to show what types of jobs are being displaced most often. There has been convincing data that shows a massive displacement of middle class labor and many believe that is an effect of an increase of technology in the workplace. In a scholarly article analyzing the reasoning for an increase in certain types of unemployment, written by three Cornell faculty members, John M. Abowd, Michael R. Strain, and Lars Vilhuber, Technology and the …show more content…
The assumption is made in the author’s decision to assign a skill level to jobs; they create graphs of data on job losses during the period based on compensation and not skill level. Although, in many cases a “higher skill” job would pay more than a “low skill” job based on prerequisites and other factors, this is not always the case. This is an extremely important contextual warrant because it allows the authors to make a claim based on displacement of the jobs in a skill level due to technology, instead of making a claim on the compensation of employees due to technology. Author’s Abowd, Strain, and Vilhuber make this clear in the introduction of their article when they say,” A computer is not going to replace a custodian — computers cannot yet make the rounds in an office after hours, emptying trash cans, … But a computer could replace a bookkeeper” (Abowd, Strain, and Vilhuber 1). This is the main claim that the article is trying to prove, that technology is displacing many mid level jobs such as bookkeeping and pushing them to tasks that could not be completed by technology. This claim is not evident based on the data provided by the Census, because the only way that they could accurately measure job level is by compensation tiers. It is not for the Census Bureau to determine what job requires more skill, but that …show more content…
Although their claim is based on a combination of warrants and deductive reasoning, which can be seen as weak, they make up for that by correctly using both techniques and drew conclusions based on evident data. The claim that technology is displacing jobs aligns with some of the different research that I have done on the topic. Andrew McAfee, an economics professor at M.I.T, recently gave a TED talk called What Will Future Jobs Look Like?, where he explains how technology will advance to the point where many employees are unneeded. He states,” If you look over the last couple of decades … at the returns to corporate profit we can see that they are at an all-time high … if we look at total wages paid out we see that at an all-time low”(TED, McAfee). This data closely ties to the claim made by Abowd, Strain, and Vilhuber, due to the belief that technology is the explanation to the disappearances of many jobs. Although the two perspectives draw from different data sources, they both point to a similar conclusion, that technology has been displacing many jobs in the economy and has the potential to displace more. Two University of Chicago students, Ethan Lieber and Chad Syverson explain the advantage that the Internet plays in lowering costs and reducing competition in their scholarly
While the many observers may believe technology is the cause, socioeconomic class plays a much larger role with wealth and overall environment control. To start would be an article from the New York Times by Janny Scott and David Leonhardt. The first part of this article focus on how class mobilization has fallen stating," mobility, which once buoyed the working lives
In the article by Nicholas Carr “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” the author is attempting to persuade readers to reflect upon the impact the internet has had in their ability to think critically. Carr is trying to prove that while yes, the internet is great, the benefits do not outweigh the consequences. Saying the internet is something people should try to stay away from is an argument that most of society would probably not agree with. Even though it might be difficult to acknowledge the consequences of the internet, I think that Carr provides an effective argument to do so.
McClelland’s article “RIP the Middle Class” was published September 20th 2013 in a salon, which is an online news site that publishes pieces that includes fearless commentary and criticism point of views. McClelland’s Rhetorical statement is that big automotive cities are diminishing which is a result of losing; which as of a result of this causes the middle class to lose. The rhetorical statement that McClelland indulges to the audience is to be persuaded by the aim which is once known as the “blue-collar aristocrats” to the “blue-collared” workers. Whom struggle to pull in a national median title of “middle class.” The time era that this has taken place started in the 1970s, remembered by Americans as the “Decade That Those Forget” which blue-collared workers prospered in the middle class economy.
If they were to successfully bring these jobs back they will all be automated by robots and kiosk machines. Now with the introduction of AI(artificial intelligence) even simple jobs that once require human
Lindsay Wickman writes about the formal and informal use of how technology over the years has shaped our government and our overall system of actions to how we adapt to it. Susan Benesch writes about the
As the world developing, the advancements in technology has become a heated topic. While the majority of labor union members believe it is immoral to have hi-tech machines do the jobs of human workers, the other majority of non-union workers opposed this idea. It has been said: "Majority ignorance is as common as majority wisdom" (Ruggiero, 2015, p. 23). Therefore, majority view should not be used as a measurement of morality in this instance, or in any other cases. For this case, what the development of the advanced technology does is not just to eliminate old jobs and also creates new jobs.
Throughout his paper Carr continually provides evidence that supports his claim that the amount of information that the internet provides is changing the way people
Moreover the workers have better wages and greater security, and people can get jobs more easily than before because there are more manufactories. It is true that there are more jobs opportunely and better wages, but it is not same for the security. The work mans in the modern world are working much harder than before and the risk rate has been increased. In the
Technologically Driven Capitalism Unlike any other country in the world, America is the land of opportunity and was established upon the principle of capitalism, characterized by its citizen’s willingness to pursue the American Dream. With the progression of time, competition in America increased subsequently diminishing the conceivability of the American Dream. In the article “From the Frying Pan Into the Fire," Arlie Hochschild compares America in the 1950s to modern America and detects a drastic transition amongst the lives and principals valued by people during both periods in time. Using evidence provided in her article “Alone Together,” Sherry Turkle would attribute these changes to the development of modern day technology, blaming
Americans below the poverty line are demanding for increased pay in their minimum wage jobs. Although with the increase to fifteen dollars an hour, many Americans would be left jobless pushing them farther under the poverty line increasing the wage by over half would harm the country’s economy more than improve it. Minimum wage workers want higher wages for the work they provide, but inflation, unemployment, and businesses closing will only cause more issues for Americans. The disadvantage to raising the pay for minimum wage workers is inflation.
Visualize that you are an American that is unemployed and trying to look for a job, however everywhere you go the jobs are very limited. Well believe it or not that, many Americans are losing their jobs due to many reasons. Keep on reading to discover the reasons why American losing there jobs, for instance technology, low wage, and because the fat cats are manufacturing products overseas. To begin with, the first factor of why there is a limited amount of employment is because of technology. Technology is a big factor because a machine can do a task faster than a human.
Work Cited Madland, David. " Growth and the Middle Class." Democracy Journal. 04 Mar. 2011. Web.
The internet has made it so much easier to find new information, if only we wouldn 't get so sidetracked. There is no reason to get rid of the use of technology, but we need to find a way for us to discipline ourselves to only use it for our
When they start to replace our jobs, the jobs we have today will be gone. A major part of the question would be where are people going to find an income to provide to their families. Their argument would be that only owners of the different companies would be able to have an income. “And at Google, the biggest seller of online ads, software does much of the selling and placing of search ads, meaning there is much less need for salespeople”(Miller). Lower classes of people would not be able to obtain jobs untroublesome, due to the level of education they obtain.
Technology is a factor that will help them prepare for the 21st century workplace. It is apparent that computers use within schools and workplaces rapidly increased throughout time, and it will definitely continue to increase in the future. Harriet Rubin, executive editor of Currency/Doubleplay, was part of a 1994 interview by Joshua D. Macht. The interview consisted of different people from different workplaces explaining how technology is taking over. Rubin described, “People are working harder and are more enslaved to their work than before.