Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 10.2 When jobs are lost to automation or the introduction of information
technology, the remaining workers may work harder in order to avoid being part of the
next layoff.
Late capitalist society is engaged in a long-term historical process of destroying
jobsecurity...Morethan ever, we worry about work and are working longer
hours; we are more than ever driven, nervous, seemingly trapped. At the very same
time, and paradoxically, the twenty-first century bodes a time of post-work: of
automation and work reorganization replacing people at faster and faster rates. [7,
pp. 38, 40]
10.2.2 Automation and Job Creation
Traditional economists hold a quite different view about the effects of automation and
information technology on jobs. They have concluded that while new technology may
destroy certain jobs, it also creates new jobs. The net result is an increase, not a decrease,
in the number of available jobs.
INCREASED PURCHASING POWER
The logic of these “automation optimists” is illustrated in Figure 10.3. On the surface,
it is obvious that automation eliminates certain jobs. That's what automation means.
However, it's also important to look beneath the surface. Automation is introduced as a
cost-saving measure: it is less expensive for a machine to perform a particular job than
a human being. Because companies compete with each other, lower production costs
result in lower prices for the consumer. The drop in the price of a product has two ben-
eficial effects. First, it increases the demand for the product. In order to produce more
of the product, workers must be hired. Second, people who were already purchasing the
product don't have to pay as much for it. That gives them more money to spend on other
things, increasing the demand for other products. This, too, results in job creation. Fi-
nally, there is an additional effect, not illustrated in the figure. Some people must be
employed designing, creating, and servicing the automated devices themselves.
 
 
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