Ronald Bailey's Summary

Many people consider America to be the leader of the technological world; however, that has not always been the case. Before America became the industrial dynamo that is today, there were multiple other countries that it had to compete against such as China, England, Japan, and Germany. While each of these countries prospered at some point throughout their technological history, America was able to learn ways to adapt in order to compete against each and every one of them. The Industrial Revolution has contributed to America in a number of ways. It has contributed to the economy and the working conditions of laborers (Saunders, 1919) (“The Industrial”, 1966). On the other hand, the industrialization of America can also be associated with some negative setbacks (Volti, 2014).

For the synergy of technology, production and employment, Many labor unions exist to argue against the need for self sufficient machines as this is a threat to

But as time and technology grows we learn that the vision starts to become less vivid. Instead of advancing our workforce it’s doing more of decreasing our high class, where it’s taking the most educated people out of business. In the article itself it starts out saying “software has also been replacing engineers” which comes to sure that technology is getting so much control of our work field it has even started to control its own

The enthralling use of technology has opened millions of individuals to systems of production that are not only faster, but cheaper and more accessible. Modern day technology takes it’s roots in both Industrial Revolutions which created new means of transportation, labor, and cities. The Industrial Revolutions were periods of time where factories and technologies became increasing popular and more demanded for manufacturing products and merchandise. Although there are setbacks with the topic of industrialization, as with any other topic, the benefits of the periods benefit us until this day.

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies Andrew

furthermore, the constant progress behind perfecting the machinery in large scale industries means; displacement of larger and larger numbers of the machine workers, and eventually the creation of mass of available wage workers, exceeding the average requirement of capital for labor. This will result in creating a complete industrial reserve army(Engel,p.100).

Since the beginning of time, people have made and used tools to make everyday life simpler. The car was a major breakthrough for transporting people as well as goods and services. The conveyor belt also helped production rates for manufacturing, allowing the work force to finish goods almost 10 times faster. The workforce benefits with new technology, some may argue that new technology hurts the workforce. Colleges and universities provided the necessary training for potential employees to be able to embrace technological changes. Vocational training also provides potential employees with the tools needed to survive the technological changes. It is important to note that

Almost 50 years ago, Richard Nixon gave an address to the nation on Labor Day. In his speech he stated that one of the core values of the United States is industriousness. He said that “work ethic is ingrained in the American character.” (Nixon). Similarly, in an article entitled A World Without Work, Derek Thompson says that “industriousness has served as America’s unofficial religion since its founding” (Thompson). However, recently, the work ethic in the United States is facing an obstacle: technology. Technology has been taking over jobs very gradually over the course of human history. From the cotton gin to the factory to the computer, American jobs have been replaced by machines. But with the rise of new technology and the invention of

THE AFTERMATH of the Industrial Revolution revealed new realities born of the marriage between technology and capitalism. Central to the Progressive motivation was the human relationship with Capital, an invisible entity whose uncanny vitalism accelerated the development of the subordinating enclosures within the emerging technological landscape and the crystallizing socio-economic paradigms that would define

“Today political power asserts itself through its power over machine process and over the technical organization….” (3). We can all agree that this statement still holds true today. The executive decisions, which are made in today’s society, are all made by those who own major companies or corporations. They have the most power because they have the most money. Their factories are mainly machines that create their product. Though they still require some manpower to run their system, they mainly rely on their machines, These select few people utilize the full potential use of technical, scientific and mechanical productivity (3).

In the article, Luciano Floridi analyzed the “human project” in terms of the economic field and the role it has in society. This approach was first presented by John Maynard Keynes in his essay “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” and he argues that there are three main problems for humanity, which are: economic problem, technological unemployment, and leisure occupation. Keynes thought that human’s purpose was to solve the society economic problem, but with changes in the modern era, he realized that it was not a permanent issue. Indeed, solving the economic dilemma brought what is known as technological unemployment. Even though technology was still in development, Keynes had predicted that by relying on animals, capital, science,

“To coordinate with the machine technology investment, advanced corporate employers will invest a lot in skills traning for workers. Substantial investments in turn exhance employers’ ability to improve human resources management policies to guarantee the long-term contractual relationship between workers does not mean a reduction in their ptofits but is a premise for capital to earn profits. Under such conditions, technological workersm as an important way for value-added, are favourably treated by capital in some extent, and become the core labor group.

New generation concern that technology advancement may displace much of the manufacturing work force, creating unemployment in society. Technological advenment is useful, any better, faster, practical or more efficient way of producing even without a new tools or machine.The different between machinery and manually is depreciation, human capital which can be viewed as the natural obsolescence of job skill over time and

These mechanically powered machines replaced the “muscle” but needed to be operated and maintained, so the demand for workers increased. “That technology brought an unprecedented rise in total output, but at the same time it maintained and even strengthened the dominant role of human labor in most kinds of its productive process.” (Leontief W, 1983, Technological advance, Economic growth and the distribution of income, p 404). While most ideas moved the old way, the invention of the telegraph brought up a change in the world. Many nations were connected by telegraph by the 1800s and ideas could be moved in a easier and efficient way. Although easier, the use of telegraph was quite expensive especially internationally. These costs were however, reduced when in the 1980s communication through phone and faxes increased because of the advancement in the field of telecommunication. During the 1990s the cost of moving ideas was lowered even further when the internet was introduced, firms and people could communicate with one another through email. The advancement in IT, made distance as a hinderance in trade, redundant. Data has also shown that there was an increase in productivity because of technology and alongside it there was an increase in employment. “For most of the two hundred years Luddite rebellion technology has boosted productivity enormously, but the data show that employment grew alongside productivity

Changes in the pattern of employment will have implications upon where and how people live, upon educational requirements, and consequently upon the kinds of organizations that will be important to society. Industrialization created the need for semiskilled worker who could be trained in a few weeks to perform the routine tasks attending machines. The service economy has caused a shift to white collar occupations in health, education, and government. For the first time in the history of industrial society, the number of white-collar workers (professionals; managers; officials; proprietors, clerical kindred, and sales workers) exceeded the number of blue-collar workers (craftsmen and foremen; operatives; and laborers) and the gap is widening. The most interesting growth has been in the managerial and professional-technical fields.