Critique Out With The Old In With The New

The author of the article “Out with the Old, in with the New” makes a very valid and compelling point about the existing fight against technology. As technology has spread more and more across the United Sates it has made manufacturers much more productive by having computers perform many simple and routine tasks. With this increase in technology comes the employment of fewer workers, lowering the price of production even more. I agree with the author that this increase in technology is awful and in no way beneficial for the workers who are losing their employment to new computers and machines, however I think numbers and statistics would have beneficial to his article. For example according to The Heritage Foundation the US manufacturing employment has dropped dramatically in just over twenty years. In 1987, 17.5 million workers were employed quarterly however in 2010 only 11.7 million workers were employed quarterly. This illustrates the vast change that technology has caused in our nation.
As the article states, the effect of adding more technology and firing workers comes full circle. This vast spread of technology would definitely lower the production price meaning the cost of the product would also decrease. As the author said this would increase the consumers demand and the supply of the product. I agree that the price of production will decrease and the production amount will increase, however will people have the money to buy the goods, since many of them may have been laid off? I believe this would make a small difference however I would not support the author’s beliefs in stating “Sure it is lowering prices of products which allows consumers to go out and spend money but with the decrease in (manufacturing) jobs it makes spending money very difficult.” I don’t think the author thought fully about this statement, as it would only affect a very small amount of income for the firm, since he is only referring to those who lost their job. This situation is also known as creative destruction, a term first linked to Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian economist. Creative destruction, meaning something new kills or slowly takes over for something old, can be related to this loss of jobs due to the increase of technology. While technology has slowly crept into our society, it has been taking over for jobs more and more. This helps expand our knowledge for the subject and helps us better decide whether technology is beneficial to our society. I believe the author thought long and hard about the outcomes of technology especially if it keeps expanding. I believe it may be helping out nation economically as prices from the firms would be lower since the production costs are less. However my only concern which the author of the former article touched upon, would be if the consumers had the extra money to spend since so many were laid off.
I think this article was beneficial to the cartoon comic strip which stated “Meet our new factory manager.” Technology has become such an integrated part of our society that we no longer even think about it, we simply accept it. However should we be thinking about it more and be much more aware of its presence? I agree with the author that its time to become more conscious of technology and its ever present force on our society. If technology continues to take over our society and jobs who knows where our society will be in ten years or even 20 years.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/10/technology-explains-drop-in-manufacturing-jobs