Some have postulated that Self-Driving Cars Threaten 4.1M jobs. The argument is that 4.1M bus drivers, taxi drivers, truck drivers, and people in the transportation business will lose their jobs and presumably not be able to find another line of work.
Personally, I tend to be somewhat skeptical of this type of headline. I do believe that the future the market will demand a more technically literate workforce - even in the C-suite. However, I do tend to agree that The Jobless Future Is A Myth.
4.1M driving jobs may disappear, but when the price of delivering items drops dramatically, how many more specialized opportunities will there be to deliver food and other niche items will come in to replace the jobs lost. I think of it like Walmart allegedly killing "mom-and-pop" stores but then helping clear the way for Etsy before starting to feel the pressure from Amazon. I would argue that the work the mom-and-pop stores did is still happening, just in different places. It seems to me more like the market getting more efficient over time rather than impending doom on the horizon.
Machines can do a lot of things, but I'm not convinced that permanently putting people out of work is one of them.
Personally, I tend to be somewhat skeptical of this type of headline. I do believe that the future the market will demand a more technically literate workforce - even in the C-suite. However, I do tend to agree that The Jobless Future Is A Myth.
4.1M driving jobs may disappear, but when the price of delivering items drops dramatically, how many more specialized opportunities will there be to deliver food and other niche items will come in to replace the jobs lost. I think of it like Walmart allegedly killing "mom-and-pop" stores but then helping clear the way for Etsy before starting to feel the pressure from Amazon. I would argue that the work the mom-and-pop stores did is still happening, just in different places. It seems to me more like the market getting more efficient over time rather than impending doom on the horizon.
Machines can do a lot of things, but I'm not convinced that permanently putting people out of work is one of them.
