"How robots became a scapegoat for the destruction of the working class", 29 April, 2019

Three papers in the last year... suggest maybe the automation we're seeing now is little different from the technological advances we've seen in every other era. Instead, the problems of inequality, stagnation, and unemployment (which get blamed on the robots) are due to policy choices and power dynamics in the U.S. economy... One answer all three papers converge on is that what's changed isn't the speed or nature of new technology; it's that workers are feeling the change more than they once did.In America, the reason often comes to down to the immense power executives hold over their employees... It's simply much easier in America for employers to hire and fire workers... Unions can mitigate the problem somewhat — they make companies at least somewhat more democratic — but unions have virtually disappeared from America's private sector. Additionally U.S. labor law doesn't require employers to consult with the remaining unions over technological strategy. This all puts a thumb on the scale in favor of owners' power over their employees, which means they can enjoy the profits from automation while the workers pay the costs.

... It's not that technology changed. It's that the programs that helped Americans deal with how technology is always upending the job market were dismantled... technologists fear that while technological disruption hasn't hit quite yet, developments like artificial intelligence mean it will grow exponentially in the near future, knocking out vast swaths of middle-skill and service work that hitherto might have seemed immune to automation... Ultimately, the problem of technological change is inseparable from the problem of democracy in our economy.