Jeb! is afraid of a robotic takeover.
Former Florida Republican Governor and failed presidential candidate Jeb Bush (Jeb!) warned that robots will eventually wipe out human jobs in the labor market, noting that this isn’t a prognostication out of a science-fiction novel.
“The looming challenge of automation and artificial intelligence and the rapid advancement of technology brings great benefits but also creates huge challenges,” Jeb told New York AM 970 radio host John Catsimatidis (via the Washington Examiner) on Sunday.
Bush explained that this trend isn’t science fiction, adding that the government needs to step in by improving education so humans can have the skills to compete with automation.
“This is not something that’s science fiction. This is happening as we speak. And yet we still have this big skills gap,” he said.
In recent years, many prominent people have warned about our impending doom because of the robot. The calls for action are growing in an environment where it seems automation has been amplified. But should human beings be concerned about robots taking our jobs? Nope!
Here are four reasons you shouldn’t fear Jeb’s ominous prediction:
Technology Has Been Around for Thousands of Years
Since the discovery of fire and the invention of the wheel, mankind has always produced technology to automate one task or another. In this same time, however, there has always been one leader or academic champion who forecasts disastrous consequences of automation, such as John Maynard Keynes, who warned of “technological unemployment.” Technology, whether it is primitive or advanced, has been around for thousands of years, and it will be around for another thousand years, and humans will still have jobs (are jobs the primary objective?).
Robots Are Capital
Robots are not human beings. Robots are another form of capital to help increase productivity. Should we have feared Microsoft software, like Windows or Word? Of course not. These types of advancements have boosted productivity, increased the pool of products to make our lives better and assisted workers in allocating their human capital into other necessary, in-demand jobs.
Automation Produces Jobs
It may perhaps be counterintuitive, but automation actually creates more jobs, as recent data have suggested. Since technology has helped lower business costs, companies can allocate those freed up resources to expand their operations and create brand new jobs.
Here is what The Daily Wire opines, which uses the example of ATMs:
For instance, the invention of automated teller machines (ATMs) may have caused a decline in bank teller jobs, but the lower costs associated with ATMs allowed banks to open up more branches; therefore creating more jobs.
According to The Economist, “The number of urban bank branches rose by 43% over the same period, so the total number of employees increased,” meaning that jobs were merely re-positioned toward “things like sales and customer service that machines could not do.”
Our Standard of Living Will Only Increase
Thanks to technology, our standard of living has significantly increased over the years. Today, we have more leisure time than at any other time in history. A long time ago, we had to use a washboard to clean our clothes, we had to wash our dishes by hand and we had to go to bed as soon as it became dark. Due to technology, we have washing machines, dishwashers and electricity to allow us to allocate that freed up time to do whatever we want, whether it is write a play or sit and stare at the wall listening to J.S. Bach’s partitas.
Final Thoughts
Machines, automation and robots are becoming more ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives. This will not slow down, but it also won’t be the cause of our ultimate demise. Robots are there to enhance productivity levels, lower costs and make our lives better. All of these gloom and doom proclamations from the likes of Bill Gates, Jeb Bush, Robert Schiller and Elon Musk are poppycock.
No, the global labor force participation rate won’t crater to 30 percent. No, we will not become servants to robots. No, we won’t live in a dystopian nightmare where everyone is poor. It is the opposite: robots will only raise our wealth and produce luxuries we did not know were possible.
History is a far more effective study than what the academics or pundits churn out on a regular basis. It isn’t different this time.
–AM
kevinbeck2015 says
Hey Jeb! The real thing to be concerned about here, since you are a consummate politician, is what the stupid income-tax system is going to look like after the robots take over. Since robots are not humans, and don’t have Social Security numbers (or “earn” such benefits in the future), they won’t be directly interacting with the government.
Better start reading “The Fair Tax Book.” Soon. Before a robot stops you from reading it.