Obama the Luddite
I don't think that anyone else here has yet mentioned Obama's comment on ATMs and jobs:
“There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers,” the president said this week. “You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM. You don’t go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking at the gate. So all these things have created changes in the economy.”
Geez, and all along I thought it was George W. Bush's fault. Nope, it is the rise of the machines!
Yes, new technologies means greater efficiencies, and greater efficiencies means less need for actual human workers, and that means fewer jobs. But it is not as if this trend has suddenly popped up to vex this President. It has been around since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Just ask the original Luddites.
That means that technology is not the main culprit of today's unemployment scourge, and not even really at the top of the list of causes. But it does make for a handy foil for a President who is looking for any distraction from the reality of things.
Erick Erickson has some valuable advice for the President in the form of a quote from Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson:
"Among the most viable of all economic delusions is the belief that machines on net balance create unemployment. Destroyed a thousand times, it has risen a thousand times out of its own ashes as hardy and vigorous as ever. Whenever there is a long-continued mass unemployment, machines get the blame anew. This fallacy is still the basis of many labor union practices…
The belief that machines cause unemployment…leads to preposterous conclusions. Not only must we be causing unemployment with every technological improvement we make today, but primitive man must have started causing it with the first efforts he made to save himself from needless toil and sweat…"
So ... does President Obama really want to reduce unemployment by returning to a past where we had all those bank tellers, and airport employees ... and union workers putting together cars by hand? A past of vast inefficiencies?
If the answer is yes, I find that particularly curious, since I thought Barack Obama wanted to 'Win the Future '...
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Comments :
Mar '11
Re: Obama the Luddite
Obama is flailing around for some excuse for his miserable performance. Anything will do. The sad thing is I think he believes it all.
Sep '10
Re: Obama the Luddite
I said something about it here by way of an anecdote. No worries though, I'm glad the subject is getting attention. I think it was one of the more politically damaging things he's said, and more can be done with this.
Mark Levin had a great rant on this the other day.
Everybody knows ATMs didn't put any bank tellers out of work. Most people find things like ATMs very convenient and a boon to economic activity and thus other jobs. You don't need to read Hayek or Milton Friedman to get that.
Oh, and you know what new piece of automation I love? Those new touch-screen ordering system for sandwiches in some convenience stores. I always hated interacting with deli people. I think when you apply for work at a Deli they will only hire you if you are unable to remember things more than 8 seconds.
Edited on Jun 18, 2011 at 8:39amMar '11
Re: Obama the Luddite
It's going to be a real problem if Obama's health care plan gets wind that efficiencies resulting from technology are now looked down upon in the new luddite administration.
Jun '10
Re: Obama the Luddite
The man is an economic illiterate. As a president he is an idiot savant with precious little savant to offer.
Apr '11
Re: Obama the Luddite
I hope he is ready to discard a few of his treasured job killing items:
Blackberry = more secretaries.
Golf cart = more caddies
Air Force One = more train rides like FDR and people to support them,( high speed even)
Teleprompter = more loggers, paper mill employees
Get the picture! BHO
Jul '10
Re: Obama the Luddite
If Obama and his eco-pals have their way, we'll all be commuting from our tiny tenements to "green" offices by foot, bicycle or horse-drawn trolleys.
Well, actually, we won't have jobs, so our commute will be to the local welfare office, where our political contributions will be scrutinized before our food stamps can be issued.
May '10
Re: Obama the Luddite
Crow's Nest's (what are the rules on a double possession apostrophe?) example is something I had thought about, but did not include.
From the April 13th 'Remarks by the President on Fiscal Policy', Obama states:
"Already, the reforms we passed in the health care law will reduce our deficit by $1 trillion. My approach would build on these reforms. We will reduce wasteful subsidies and erroneous payments. We will cut spending on prescription drugs by using Medicare’s purchasing power to drive greater efficiency"
And how would we "reduce...erroneous payments" and "drive greater efficiency"? why by using wonderful technology! Ooops...can't do that and reduce unemployment at the same time....
I guess Obama's logic does make perfect sense if you are a lefty. Reduced spending via greater efficiencies....but greater efficiencies 'kill' jobs....therefore increased spending would create (or save) jobs.
And that twisted logic is how the idea of The Stimulus was born....
Apr '11
Re: Obama the Luddite
He didn't say he wanted bank tellers. He has said he wants new jobs in the USA.
So. let's see what is Bush's fault. it seems to me that the economy has been the worst for the middle class after GOP tax cuts.
May '10
Re: Obama the Luddite
"there are some structural issues" has to be about the lamest non-analysis ever uttered by a chief executive anywhere, anytime.
Apr '11
Re: Obama the Luddite
Obviously written by someone not worried about his job. Facts: lots of people are out of work; jobs were lost to misallocation of capital (housing bubble), off-shoring, automation, and technology (e.g. online bill payments). Obama's remarks may have been clueless but they sound no less clueless to the average scared voter as babbling about cutting taxes on gains and dividends earned by the wealthy. The GOP better figure this out quickly.
Mar '11
Re: Obama the Luddite
Charles--I won't advise you on the double possessive question--especially since in my latest topic I made Saturday possessive without meaning to....and can't figure out the Ricochet interface well enough to edit out my mistake.
Nevertheless, appreciate you fleshing out some more of the context of my sarcasm. I mean, really, if a Republican had said similar things they would be endlessly mocked by Jon Stewart for having done so. Where's the "ATMs cause 10% unemployment" sketch on Saturday Night Live (no possessive, nothing to fear)
Stephen: You are absolutely right that the conditions for the middle class have not significantly improved over the last 10 years of so...under Bush or Obama. It's one of the reasons that I endorse a fundamental restructuring of the tax system--we need to ensure everyone has skin in the game, but we also need to provide a different set of incentives. A very recent and provocative idea along these lines is Ramesh Ponnuru's latest at Bloomberg news.
Oct '10
Re: Obama the Luddite
It is clear that Obama is just filling interview time here. Existence in the real world is alien to him in large part.
ATMs ? How about the robotic assembly lines auto makers employ ?
Perhaps none here are old enough to know that when purchasing an new auto from Detroit, check the VIN number first.... If it was made on a Monday or Friday, do not buy it. Current Assembly line Robotics do not show up on Monday late and hung over or sluff off on Fridays with thoughts of the new weekend...
Obama is just playing out his string...
Jul '10
Re: Obama the Luddite
Crow's Nest:
Nevertheless, appreciate you fleshing out some more of the context of my sarcasm. I mean, really, if a Republican had said similar things they would be endlessly mocked by Jon Stewart for having done so. Where's the "ATMs cause 10% unemployment" sketch on Saturday Night Live (no possessive, nothing to fear)
I know this tidbit is off topic but...
Have you ever noticed that when Saturday Night Live DOES do a parody on a Democrat they get any actor to play the role, however, when they parody a Republican they always have someone who Looks and Sounds as close as they can get to the person? (i.e. Tina Fey and her Palin, or Dana Carvey and Bush 41.)
Just something I've noticed.
Mar '11
Re: Obama the Luddite
Someone, somewhere, pointed out that the advantage of ATM's is that they do not need Obamacare - this should be obvious to someone of such formidable intelligence as Mr Obama. It also explains why manufacturing has moved outa the USA. This is not rocket science.
Apr '11
Re: Obama the Luddite
Our current troubles have nothing whatever to do with ATMs, and everything to do with the Federal government acting as if taxpayers (both individuals and businesses) are ATMs.
The best case scenario is that the current Administration is clueless. Best case. I want to believe.
Nothing will improve long-term until this government-induced climate of economic uncertainty is reversed, and the Federal government returns to its Constitutionally-constrained areas of responsibility.
Nothing bad is ever his fault. Nothing good is ever due to the contributions of those outside his ideological circle.
Keep digging, Mr. President. Keep blame-shifting. Keep betraying your total lack of understanding of simple macroeconomics.
Maybe we'll even nominate someone who can do as well in the polls as the very popular Generic Republican Candidate.