Hi Everyone,
In today’s video, I discuss technology and how it improves efficiency and quality of life. I also look at how technology is blamed for reducing employment and job opportunities. I have 2 posts which previously discussed technology. In one post,‘Technology – Curse or blessing?’, I looked at some of the great things technology can do for us as well as how technology can be exploited if it is in the hands of a few. In my other post, ‘Less jobs vs less working hours – Further discussion about efficiency and technology’, I discussed working hours, employment, and income. I also looked at how centralised ownership and decentralised ownership of technology has an impact on the distribution of the benefits of technology. I would recommend that you read these posts as well to add more context to the video.
Just in case, the 3Speak version becomes unavailable at some point. I have also uploaded the video to YouTube.
The video has been divided into three parts. The first part looks at how technology can improve efficiency and quality of life. The second part looks at how employment is effected by the implementation of technology. The third part considers how the negative effect on employment can be resolved by changes in market structure.
The first part of the video explains how technology has improved efficiency in many ways. The video uses the example of computers, cameras, video cameras, and the internet as an example of the use of technology to aid in the dissemination of information. The video considers how technology improves the quality of life by enabling more experiences and enjoyment. The video uses demand and supply to explain the effect on output as well as the possible effects on price.
The second part of the video explains how the implementation of technology has resulted in job losses as well as the creation of more jobs. If the technology implemented is effective, the number of working hours should fall unless there is a massive spike in demand. My post, ‘Less jobs vs less working hours – Further discussion about efficiency and technology’ considers the data in more detail. The video explains how the separation of ownership of technology from the workforce has resulted in investors reaping most of the benefits of technology.
The third part of the video explains that improvements in technology is not the main culprit for loss of jobs. Instead, the culprit is the nature of large businesses and their ownership of the technology. The video explains that if the market consisted of smaller firms, this problem is unlikely to exist, as the investors in the technology are the workers/employees of the business. One of the biggest obstacles that smaller firms face is the availability of capital to invest in technology or development of technology. This can be overcome through cooperation and knowledge sharing.
If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These posts will be updated frequently.
I have launched my first Udemy course ‘Economics is for Everyone’. The course focuses on how economics affects everyday people, the decisions they make and how they interact with the world around them. The course contains 24 video lectures (about 4 hours of viewing), 64 multiple-choice questions (3 at the end of most lectures), 32 downloadable resources (presentation slides, additional notes and links to relevant Steem posts), and 2 scenario questions. The course is currently free-of-charge. Click the link above to access the course.
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