> I mean... we did put nearly all the horses out of a job. Ditto oxen and other beasts of burden.
Don't forget farmers. Most americans were farmers in the early 1900s. Today it's about 1%.
Sure, jobs were eventually created for the unemployed farmers but "robots taking all the jobs" was a cataclysmic event in the early 1900s. You could argue it was the driving force for much of the 20th century. WW1 was primarily a result of european and american societies having excess population to "thin out". The excess population was also a reason for the anti-immigration movement that dominated the first half of the 1900s.
"Robots taking our jobs" isn't the end of the world. But it can be very painful.
Don't forget farmers. Most americans were farmers in the early 1900s. Today it's about 1%.
Sure, jobs were eventually created for the unemployed farmers but "robots taking all the jobs" was a cataclysmic event in the early 1900s. You could argue it was the driving force for much of the 20th century. WW1 was primarily a result of european and american societies having excess population to "thin out". The excess population was also a reason for the anti-immigration movement that dominated the first half of the 1900s.
"Robots taking our jobs" isn't the end of the world. But it can be very painful.