NATS 1700 Chapter Notes -John Maynard Keynes, Microprocessor, Online Game
Document Summary
Introduction of computers into the workplace generated many fears. Many social critics, social scientists, politicians, unions, and activists thought computers would be highly threatening. Workers having to acquire computer skills is too heavy a burden. Need for increased technical training and skills would widen the earning gap between those who obtain the new skills and those who do not. Saw telecommuting as bad for workers and society. This assumption was right for the first few decades of computer use: # of bank tellers down from 1983-1993. Electronic calculators replaced many old products as well as the people who operated and sold them as a living. As technology comes out and replaces old methods, the jobs of people who created, operated, and sold those products for a living were gone increased unemployment: large-scale loss of jobs from companies downsizing. Shopping online reduced needs for sales clerks, record companies going out of business from pirating: computers eliminate jobs.
