Last night I had my first class in Human Resource Management. I work full-time for a big tech firm here in Canada, but I'm working on completing my business degree part-time.
Despite this being a class in human resource management, the professor felt it to be worthwhile to give the class a lesson economics. He declared to the class more than once that "technology advancements which help us do things more efficiently are good, but technology advancements which replace jobs are bad."
The first time I heard him say it, I let it pass. I'm attending a left leaning university and I've heard worse from professors there.
The second time I immediately spoke out, "technology has been replacing jobs for thousands of years and there is nothing wrong with this". The following back and forth occurred:
Him "This is true, but some technologies have been known to put people out of work; for example ATMs"
Me "I'm sorry, but are you saying that banks employ less people today because of ATMs?"
Him "Well, no, that's not true. But it has forced a shift in the work force."
Me "Right, so because of ATMs, an easy job has become automated and the work force has been shifted to more productive jobs which cannot be automated as of yet, but has not caused unemployment."
Him "Uh, right, but consider the impact on customer service. Because of ATMs, there are less people to work customer service, so when you need to do something at the bank that cannot be done using the ATM, you have to wait in long lines. The line at the Bank today when I was attempting to make a deposit into a business account was incredible".
Me "Uh-huh. So before ATMs there weren't line-ups at banks?"
Him "Oh no, there were. Moving on..."
Just thought I'd share.
Site Information
About Us
- RonPaulForums.com is an independent grassroots outfit not officially connected to Ron Paul but dedicated to his mission. For more information see our Mission Statement.
Connect With Us