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Economy
Is Ned Ludd Writing For The Associated Press?
2013-01-27
Interesting Powerlineblog dissection of an AP opinion piece on the seemingly permanent loss of jobs in the course of the Nobama administration. The premise is that technology is the reason the jobs have gone away, seemingly never to return.

As it happens, I was talking with the Little Woman (she's less than eighteen inches tall) about that very thing the other day. Banks have been replacing human tellers with ATMs. If you go to Home Depot you're expected, though not yet required, to check yourself out, using their automated checkout system. If you try to contact Comcast or Verizon or most any other company you get to poke buttons on your phone until you've managed to confuse the decidedly artificial theoretical intelligence, at which point you'll maybe be connected with a human and put on hold for forty five minutes.

The conversation wasn't, however, about technology. It was about a proposal to raise the minimum wage in Maryland to $9.75, or about 30 percent over the current $7.25. What this means, as we tried patiently to explain to our 16-year-old grandson, is that to make up this difference either employees have to become 30 percent more productive or that 30 percent of the hourly wage earners have to be displaced, either by technology or by nothing.

Take your pick. The company -- whichever company it is, whether Wal-Mart or Joe's Gas Station & General Store -- isn't going to just suck it up and take a hit on profits. For one thing, Joe's probably making just over break-even, and that only by lying on his tax forms.

We've entered an age now where software (not computers) possesses a rudimentary intelligence. It's not self-aware, but it's aware of us. That's why we get "Press 1 for English, 2 para Español," followed by "Does your computer's screen light up?" usually followed by "I do not understand the word 'Goddammit!' Please rephrase your response." You can buy one of these programs for an initial layout of anywhere from $300 to several thousand dollars. That actually makes owning the idiot machine more cost-effective than hiring the illiterate high school child.

And now politicians want to make it 30 percent more cost effective to buy the software.
Posted by:Fred

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