Click on the link to watch a US Congressman on the floor of the House transform into a modern day Luddite...A case of adding up only one side of cost-benefit equation and forgetting there is another side...Extra credit for pointing out the economic fallacies (there are many) in the few minutes of this speech...
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Blames The iPad For Killing Jobs
From Wikipedia: ""The Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the nineteenth century who protested – often by destroying mechanized looms – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life. It took its name from Ned Ludd.""
"What becomes of the text book companies and publishers?" They are replaced with iPad developers and storefronts. We do not 'lose' our jobs, they are replaced with different jobs. Just recently Rasmussen College began offering an associates degree in "software application development" (making 'apps') These students have jobs waiting for them upon graduation. America is shifting from production careers to innovation-based. What this representative newbie fails to realize is that the jobs he so desperately fears of losing are being replaced, through the unseen, by newer, better, higher-paying jobs at the top of the industry instead of the lower, medial tasks of running textbook publishing factories.
ReplyDeleteWell first of all if he believes that the Apple industry is raising unemployment then why is he supporting them by purchasing their product? Technology comes with repercussions but he does not mention any of the new jobs that the iPad will produce. As the business starts to grow they will need more people in the industry and more marketers. It is highly unlikely that iPads will cut out every book in the world anytime soon. If we use this as an excuse for unemployment we could use anything else. Laptops and televisions instead of newspapers, cars instead of bicycles, or frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. There will always be competition no matter what so no need to worry nor focus on that right now.
ReplyDeleteI think this argument can go either way. Technology is always advancing and there's no way to stop it. Just like there's no way to stop the consumer from buying it. Even though the ipad might be a variable to book stores closing and people getting laid off, jobs are still being created. Someone needs to make all those ipads, right?haha. There's people who have to create apps and more people are probably hired at the apple store to handle all their new customers. The ipad is not the only contributor to unemployment. Plus, some new books are really expensive. Before I even step into a book store I go to half-priced books.
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