KaiserJeep wrote:Niether should you. The purpose of automation is to make goods and services cheaper to all. That way, more people can buy more stuff.
The person who hangs around a dead town with no jobs is a loser.
The person who does not get retrained for another job is a loser.
The person who insists that what he wants to do is a job that no longer exists is a loser.
Here's a clue: They call it work for a reason. They are going to pay you to do something they need done. It might not be what you want to do, or where you want to do it, or in the company of people you want to associate with. You are pretty lucky if you have any of those things.
You take the money and do the job, or quit and please yourself. It's not slavery, you have a choice.
Technological change continues, and always will. Be flexible and willing to learn, or live on the dole, or become homeless, those are the choices.
Everything you say is true.
IMO, however, at least in much of the corporate world, at least in the US, there has been one BIG change re dealing with managing a career since the 90's.
Prior to about the mid-90's many corporations wanted to have and keep good, reliable employees throughout their careers. Thus, they would help them in their careers with guidance, encouragement, and most importantly formal training for better jobs, keeping up with technology, etc.
Much of that went away with MANY old-line companies as the goal of saving money in the short term became number one. So for training, there was little, if any. People were told to take classes on their own dime while on vacation, if they wanted training. Encouragement and guidance? As far as careers, that pretty much went away too.
So you're right -- and the responsibility does rest ultimately with the individual. But it is much more difficult as things are now, at least for the vast majority of US people who were fortunate enough to work for relatively paternalistic corporations before roughly 1995.
Again, the book "White Collar Sweatshop" does a decent job documenting much of the scale and the nature of the way things changed for roughly 80 million white collar workers around that time.