Automation Can Undermine the Meaning of Work Before It Eliminates Jobs
Replaceable but Employed: Automation and the Meaning of Work
A new NBER working paper by Joshua S. Gans explores how automation can harm workers even when they keep their jobs. The model considers jobs where workers value both producing useful output and knowing their contribution matters. A credible machine alternative can weaken that sense of meaning, raising compensation when wages adjust fully or leaving workers worse off when they don't. The paper also shows that an external developer might profit from publicly demonstrating a machine before licensing it, creating a 'meaning externality' that can make automation socially harmful.
Automation can, therefore, reduce the value of work before it eliminates jobs.
- pgt
Does anybody have a link where I don't need to download a PDF and zoom and it's still messed up for reading? I just want HTML, mannn.
- pydry
This paper created some neat theoretical mathematical models but I can't see anything that indicates that they have anything to do with reality.
I thought they'd come up with a neat mechanism that looked at actual wages in real companies where automation was introduced, but no. It's all spherical cows.
- jdw64
>Automation can, therefore, reduce the value of work before it eliminates jobs.
As automation takes over, the value of labor collapses, and workers' market bargaining power under capitalism is the first to crumble. Ultimately, this drives up the value of real assets. I agree that tech companies can profit and gain the upper hand in negotiations simply by demonstrating a machine before licensing it, as this alone diminishes the value of workers. I am seriously worried these days.