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Title: Paradox of Abundance: Automation Anxiety Returns

Citation Type: Book, Section

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: Despite sustained increases in material standards of living, fear of the adverse employment consequences of technological advancement has recurred repeatedly. This represents a paradox of abundance: technological change threatens social welfare not because it intesifies scarcity but because it augments abundance. For most citizens of market economics, the primary income-generating asset they possess is their scarce labor. If rapid technological advances were to effectively substitute cheap and abundant capital for (previously) expensive and willful labor, society would be made wealthier, not poorer, in aggregate, but those who own labor but do not own capital might find it increasingly challenging to make a living. This chapter considers why automation anxiety has suddenly become salient in popular and academic discourse. It offers informed conjectures on the potential implications of these developments for employment and earnings.

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Authors: Autor, David H.

Editors: Subramanian Rangan,

Pages: 237-260

Volume Title: Performance and Progress: Essays on Capitalism, Business, and Society

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publisher Location: Oxford, England

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other

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