The speed of automation-driven job loss, not the scale, is historically unprecedented and unpredicted

Evidence

“The idea that a wave of economic change is so disruptive to the social order that a society might rebel against it — that has, it seems, disappeared from the realms of the possible. But the disappearance of 47 per cent of jobs in two decades (as per Frey and Osborne) must be right on the edge of what a society can bear, not so much because of that 47 per cent, as because of the timeframe. Jobs do go away; it’s happened many times. For jobs to go away with that speed, however, is a new thing, and the search for historical precedents, for examples from which we can learn, won’t take us far. How would this speed of job disappearance, combined with extensive deflation, play out? The truth is nobody knows. In the absence of any template or precedent, the idea that the economic process will just roll ahead like a juggernaut, unopposed by any social or political counter-forces, is a stretch. The robots will only eat all the jobs if we decide to let them.” — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1992

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Frey and Osborne’s famous 2013 study of automation and 47% of US jobs being at risk — opens a thread about the distinct temporality of disruption. — connects to: Unemployment’s rate of change, not its level, signals societal threat — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 751

Broader Connections

• Unemployment’s rate of change, not its level, signals societal threat #corroborates (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 751