By: Ben Schiller
March 31, 2017
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says automation isn’t something he loses sleep over: “It’s not even on our radar screen . . . [it’s] 50 to 100 more years” away, as he said at an event organized by Axios. “I’m not worried at all,” he added. “In fact I’m optimistic.”
Mnuchin’s statements contrast with warnings issued by the last administration, which produced reports looking at the economic impact of automation. It said, for instance, that 1.3 million to 1.7 million truck drivers could lose their jobs as a result of self-driving technology. “We are going to have to have a societal conversation about how we manage [robots and automation],” Obama told Wired.
Mnuchin does. Looking at the effect of industrial robots across the U.S., it shows how automation is already leading to job losses and wage decreases at a significant scale and that new jobs are not being created at a fast enough rate to take their place. The paper adds weight to those who say we should be addressing the social impact of artificially intelligent machines, perhaps with radical policies like a universal basic income.
You can put the divide between Obama and Mnuchin down to politics (surprise!). The Trump team has blamed trade policies, overregulation, and immigrants for job losses in the heartland, not automation. But the contrast is also reflected in the views of economists. Some say robots will replace humans in the workplace, causing widespread job losses. Others say these fears are overblown: that automation, like previous technological upheavals before it, will displace some workers, but create new ones to compensate.