Goldtent TA Paradise

One Million Jobs, Zero Apocalypse: How AI Is Outpacing Layoffs and Rewriting the Labor Market

1. Fullgoldcrown says:

   September 8, 2026 - 6:55 pm at 6:55 pm

   CAN YOU PROVIDE A LIST OF ICONIC EXAMPLE WHERE NEW TECHNOLOGY LIKE AUTOMATION INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE AND THE PRINTING PRESS AND THE WHEEL AND THE INTERNET AND MORE WERE SEEN AS DOOM AND GLOOM FOR THE ECONOMY AND WERE SPECTACULARLY WRONG

   Absolutely. One of the most consistent patterns in economic history is that transformative technologies are often greeted with predictions of mass unemployment, social collapse, declining skills, or economic ruin. Time and again, the predictions were exaggerated or simply wrong.

   Here are some of the most famous examples:

   

   

   

   

   

   

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2. Fullgoldcrown says:

   September 8, 2026 - 6:56 pm at 6:56 pm

   Some Particularly Spectacularly Wrong Predictions
   1. The Luddites (1811-1816)

   Perhaps the most famous example.

   Workers smashed textile machinery because they believed machines would permanently destroy employment. In reality, Britain entered a century of extraordinary industrial growth, and textile production expanded massively.

   2. The “Computer Will Eliminate Clerical Work” Prediction

   In the 1960s and 1970s many experts believed office automation would dramatically shrink white-collar employment.

   Instead, lower information-processing costs increased the amount of information businesses could use, creating entirely new occupations.

   3. The ATM Apocalypse

   When ATMs appeared, many economists expected bank tellers to disappear.

   The opposite happened. Because branches became cheaper to operate, banks opened more branches. Teller roles evolved rather than vanished.

   4. The “End of Work” Predictions of the 1930s

   John Maynard Keynes famously predicted that technology would lead people to work around 15 hours per week.

   Technology did raise productivity enormously, but societies mostly chose higher living standards, more goods, better healthcare, and more services rather than drastically less work.

   5. Early Internet Panic

   In the 1990s many commentators warned that online commerce would devastate employment and local economies.

   Instead, the internet became one of the largest economic growth engines in history and created countless new occupations that nobody had imagined.

   The Common Pattern

   Economic historian Joel Mokyr summarizes the pattern well: technology usually destroys tasks, not necessarily jobs.

   Historically:

   Automation lowers costs.
   Lower costs increase demand.
   New industries emerge.
   Workers shift into new roles.
   Overall productivity and living standards rise.

   That does not mean transitions are painless. Many workers and regions suffer in the short run. But the repeated prediction that a major technology would cause permanent mass unemployment or economic collapse has a remarkably poor track record over the last 500+ years.

   A useful rule of thumb is: people are usually very good at predicting the jobs technology will eliminate, and very bad at predicting the new industries and jobs it will create.

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