FQ.08.04: Favorite Quote for This Week

Some people believe labor-saving technological change is bad for the workers because it throws them out of work.  This is the Luddite fallacy, one of the silliest ideas ever to come along in the long tradition of silly ideas in economics...

The original Luddites were hosiery and lace workers in Nottingham, England, in 1811.  They smashed knitting machines that embodied new labor-saving technology as a protest against unemployment (theirs)... English government officials, after careful study, addressed the Luddites' concerns by hanging fourteen of them in January 1813.
—William Easterly, The Elusive Quest for Growth

Comments

[Gil]

" . . . English government officials, after careful study, addressed the Luddites' concerns by hanging fourteen of them in January 1813 . . ."

Libertarians would be misty-eyed on hearing this as it harkens to a time when government protected the interest of the hard-working Capitalist entrepreneurs and not them violent Socialist yobbo types.

[Ariah]

An economics quote with a punchline? Great stuff!

[Jason]

Luddites, however, learned their lesson and became much more effective over the years despite their protests against productivity. Instead of smashing things, they got elected to Congress. You can't get hanged for destroying economic potential.

[mark]

Labor saving technology (productivity gains) is great and has the potential to increase the living standards of society. Through supply side economics the government encourages R&D and investment in production. But with the right for govt to do so, does govt also have the responsibilty to ensure everyone willing and able to work has a job? I guess hanging them is easier.

[Ken Magalnik]

"But with the right for govt to do so, does govt also have the responsibilty to ensure everyone willing and able to work has a job?"

Nope. The gov't has the responsibility to make sure that anyone willing and able isnt being kept from getting a job via discrimination, war and the like.

[Aaron]

Every time you use an ATM, you outsource a high paying white collar job to a machine.

At least when we outsource to India, a human gets the job.

[Andrew]

@Aaron

While I get what you are getting at, it's not like a bank teller is actually highly paid.

Every time you order a car on a website though, you are putting some poor car salesman out of a job. Someone cry for the death of the sleazy salesman.