Destroying Jobs Is the Entire Basis of Progress
Concerns about specific technologies should focus on their consumption
Nearly all talk of “jobs” drives me crazy. Politicians say we can’t accept port automation or self-driving cars because we need to protect jobs. Or we need fewer immigrants for the same reason. Or that one source of energy is better than another because it creates more jobs. In public opinion surveys, the idea of “protecting jobs” polls well. Politicians speak in this language because this is how regular people understand the economy.
In the US, the unemployment rate is about 4%. In India, the government estimates an official unemployment rate of 3.1% in 2025. What a remarkable coincidence that India has four times as many people as the US, and somehow around four times as many jobs available. The coincidences don’t stop there. In the first US census in 1790, the country had about 4 million people, including slaves. Today, we have 342 million. Yet each society seems to end up with about the same number of jobs, in proportion to the population. Even countries with high official unemployment rates often have huge portions of the labor force working in the non-formal sector.
So “jobs” is not the reason some countries and societies are wealthier than others. Why, then, do people in the US enjoy much higher living standards than people in India, who are better off economically than people at the American founding, who didn’t have antibiotics, cars, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, and an endless number of modern conveniences we now take for granted?
