Michael Lorton
1 min readSep 5, 2017

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My understanding that technological improvements never have and never will cause a net loss in employment — I believe today is Tuesday; I understand that unemployment has different causes — comes from 200 years of history and from logic. People have been complaining that automatic looms or telephones or automatic telephones or automatic teller machines are going to cause unemployment since 1815 at least, and it hasn’t happened.

Money isn’t static, but if you don’t have to pay a truck driver, yes, that money is available to buy something else.

Why would anyone want an automated truck if it weren’t for the fact that having one always you to consume more? What other purpose do “savings” and “efficiency” have for you?

The disruption is coming surely, but ignoring its actual nature won’t help anyone.

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