Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: rstevew@armory.com (Richard Steven Walz)
Subject: Re: Does Automation Take Jobs Away?
Organization: The Armory
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 14:46:04 GMT
Message-ID: <CtI3ot.3rq@armory.com>
References: <30md20$lbe@handler.Eng.Sun.COM> <30mlb6$pjr@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> <CtE9y0.KLM@armory.com> <30tlu2$eue@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>
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In article <30tlu2$eue@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>,
Frank Manning <frank@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu> wrote:
>In article <CtE9y0.KLM@armory.com> rstevew@armory.com (Richard Steven Walz)
>writes:
>
>>In article <30mlb6$pjr@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>,
>>Frank Manning <frank@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>The U.S. has been automating for the past hundred years at least. If
>>>automation caused the loss of jobs over the long term, we should have
>>>seen a gradual increase in unemployment over the last hundred years.
>>>
>>>But we haven't.
>>
>> Of course we have, Frank! You just forget that before social security,
>> people just died a lot of starvation!!! There was no unemployment
>> compensation!!! 
>
> <further rantings about capitalism deleted>
>
>Would you mind sticking to the subject, please? This is a thread about
>automation vs. manual labor, not socialism vs. capitalism.
>
>Besides, socialist governments aren't backing away from automation any
>more than capitalist governments are.
>-- Frank Manning
----------------------------
It's NOT "whether to automate" Frank, but who gets the rewards from the
robot's work!!! Thus the entire question is the biggest comp.robotics
political question we CAN talk about here!!! 
-Steve Walz   rstevew@armory.com

