3.295 high tech and jobs, cont. (69)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Thu, 27 Jul 89 22:19:29 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 295. Thursday, 27 Jul 1989.
(1) Date: Thu, 27 Jul 89 17:10 EST (36 lines)
From: EVENS@UTORPHYS
Subject: New tech and employment
(2) Date: Thu, 27 Jul 89 18:03:39 BST (13 lines)
From: Donald Spaeth (0532) 33 3573 <ECL6DAS@CMS1.UCS.LEEDS.AC.UK>
Subject: Loss of white collar jobs
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 89 17:10 EST
From: EVENS@UTORPHYS
Subject: New tech and employment
In Vol. 3, No. 291. Wednesday, 26 Jul., Kevin L. Cope writes
>Mr. McSwain points out that increased computing power will put many white-
>collar experts out of work. Could it be that computers have done TOO good a
>job? Perhaps they have reduced labor to the point that most people, including
>academics, don't need to work 40 hours per week. One down-side ...
>is that we now have to find more things for more people to do ...
Historically the effect of introducing new techonology has always
been a net increase in total employment. This is because as the unit
price of any product falls the number of people who can afford it
rises, and the number of units each person purchases rises. Thus
the total demand for the product always rises more than enough to
compensate for the decreased unit labor requirement. This is
documented in the May 1989 Scientific American.
An example a little closer to home. If office automation allows
an office of a given size to function with fewer secretaries,
then a university of a given size can decrease its secretarial
requirements, thus decreasing tuition costs. Then more students
will attend, and individuals will attend longer, thus creating
more demand for universities, and causing the university to
expand. The expansion is (historically has been) large enough
to cause more secretaries (indeed staff and faculty at all levels)
to be hired overall.
The one thing that must be emphasized is that with new technology
will come demands for new skills. Again in the secretary example,
the office of today is very unlike the office of even as little
as 20 years ago.
dan evens <evens@utorphys>
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------19----
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 89 18:03:39 BST
From: Donald Spaeth (0532) 33 3573 <ECL6DAS@CMS1.UCS.LEEDS.AC.UK>
Subject: Loss of white collar jobs
I have yet to be convinced that computers are labour-saving devices.
On the contrary! Employment simply shifts into new areas. In this
country (Britain) we are facing a shortage of c. 30,000 IT professionals
in the coming decade.
Donald Spaeth
Arts Computing Development Officer
University of Leeds
email: earn/bitnet: d.a.spaeth at leeds.ac.uk (janet)
janet: d.a.spaeth at uk.ac.leeds