The article ‘Why Luddites Matter” makes a good argument that there is nothing particularly radical or incomprehensible about the desires of Luddites. All they wanted after all was to feed their children instead of letting factory owners grow more powerful. I agree that workers should have the right to determine their labor conditions and be allowed to share in the benefits of new machinery. This is why I encourage advocacy for the existence of labor unions or governmental departments responsible for keeping an eye on those in certain departments. Notice I did not mention the workers themselves being responsible for how they share in the benefits of automation, but a system of experts that oversee this process.
The question then is why is there a need for experts to keep track of automation instead of individual workers. A perfect answer is in the article “Telephone operation was a good
career for women. Then it got automated.”. The obvious conclusion from the automation of automatic switching systems for telephones is that it killed the jobs of young white women, however, overall the economy adapted and adjusted to this new system. The workers adapted too, though the existing telephone workers were more likely to be worse. And here is the reason for my suggestion of labor unions, to make sure that workers are not thrown to the streets when their jobs are lost to automation. And overseeing departments to study and estimate the impact that employing new technologies would have.
While workers might have valid concerns and reasons for denying certain types of automation, their familiarity with the potential impact of new automation systems could be very limited. An excellent example is the Anti-digit dialing league whose argument for opposing the use of numbers is purely aesthetic. This is not a reason to dismiss their argument; It is a valid concern that they were losing humanity within exchange numbers. However, they overlook how fast humans can adapt to new systems and the advantages of using numbers. I could argue that workers only think about “being able to feed themselves and their family”. The same could be said for technology companies which think within “profit and labor savings”. A labor union will keep the company’s “cost-cutting” in check by making it responsible for accommodating.
Sources :
–Consult 