While it’s true that a look at history shows that new technological advances have created new jobs as they destroyed old ones, we can’t assume what happened in the past will happen in the future. While previous revolutions created new machines which had to be operated by humans — giving farmers displaced by tractors work in factories, or factory workers displaced by machines work with computers or the Internet—nearly all new technologies are focused on eliminating humans (in the interest of either saving money, saving time, or safety). That’s what investors want to put their money into because that’s what will generate the greatest returns. Since labor is most companies’ largest expense, who wants to invest or deploy technology that requires more humans to operate? It’s not a problem anyone is interested in solving, so instead the technocrats give vague assurances that “it’ll work itself out somehow, just as it did before”.

Even the standard bearers of the so-called “sharing economy” that supposedly allows “everyone to create their own job” would much rather manage machines than humans, as exemplified by Uber’s move towards autonomous taxis (always its end game). Even AirBNB—a service I love and use—mostly benefits those who are moderately well off (enough to own a second house or extra space in a nice enough home).

I desperately hope, for my children and grandchildren’s sake, that a solution to the disappearing jobs issue will magically emerge. But I’m not optimistic considering that very few resources are being put into solving it.