Recent AI discussions makes it almost certain that jobs would be affected. It makes me wonder what happened when suddenly humans were replaced by machines. Assuming a lot of jobs were lost was it that lots of people suddenly found it difficult to afford meals or was it not disastrous at all and was a smoot h transition? Can we compare it to today’s AI revolution in terms of adjustment with jobs?
In: 34
The first casualties of the industrial revolution were spinners and weavers. Mostly women doing piece work at home as they had done for centuries while raising kids and keeping house. The new spinning and weaving machines changed an ancient pattern. 90% of the time making a shirt was in spinning the thread by hand.
It was an important source of income for the family. That went away and by the Regency Era upwards of 20% of the female population of London, married or not, were involved in the sex trade to make ends meet. Around this time the then Queen and Victoria after her created a social program to run free schools to teach fine needlework, embroidery and lacemaking to young women as an alternative source of income to sex work. The answer to job losses through technology is seeing that retraining in new skills is easily available.
Latest Answers