Robotic Nation Evidence

So that's why we have jobless recovery
What if new jobs never happen?

The article is written by David Broder of the Washington Post. It opens with an introduction to Barney Frank:

On the left of the Democratic Party, they don't come any smarter than Barney Frank, the 12-term congressman from Massachusetts. Republicans enjoy debating him, because if you've beaten him, you know the next liberal will be easier.

Then it summarizes Frank's new idea:

A fundamental shift has occurred, he says. ``The ability of the private sector in this country to create wealth is now outstripping its ability to create jobs. The normal rule of thumb by which a certain increase in the gross domestic product would produce a concomitant increase in jobs does not appear to apply.''

That is the basic reason, he suggests, for this jobless recovery -- why month after month the economic growth figures spell boom, and month after month unemployment remains stubbornly high and more thousands become so discouraged they give up the search for work.

This is exactly the idea laid out in Robotic Nation. Then the article offers Frank's proposal for a solution:

His proposal is to tax some of the wealth the private sector is producing so abundantly -- ``a fairly small percentage,'' he said, without being specific -- ``and use it to employ people on socially useful purposes.''

Frank urges that we ``take some of the wealth that is being created by this wonderful thing, this increased productivity, this new technology and the ways of using it, and all this innovation, and let us use it for our own undisputed public purposes. Let us give cities and states more money so they can have more people policing, fighting fires, cleaning up the environment, repairing facilities that need to be repaired, enhancing train transportation, building highways.''

Frank seems to be missing the point of the Robotic Nation. The same technology that is improving productivity/efficiency and eliminating jobs today will soon affect every aspect of the employment landscape. It will affect police officers, fire fighters, highway construction/repair crews, etc. in exactly the same way. Fewer jobs will be available once robots are doing all the work.

It is time to rethink how the economy works. Instead of taxing wealth and giving the money to government, we should instead give the money directly to citizens for them to spend as they choose. In this way, all citizens acheive true financial freedom and are able to live their lives without jobs. They are free to do as they like. See Robotic Freedom for details.