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The Technology Trap

Page 56

by Carl Benedikt Frey


  Google Translate, 304

  Goolsbee, Austan, 340

  Gordon, Robert, 198, 202, 220, 272, 342

  government regulations, 49, 137

  Great Depression, 13, 143, 170, 211, 272

  Great Divergence, 24; absence of economic revolution, 95; beginnings of industrialization, 94; factory system, evolution of (see factory system); Industrial Revolution (see Industrial Revolution); per capita income growth, 94; rise of the machines, 93; textile industry, Industrial Revolution begun in, 95

  Great Escape, 8

  “great exception” in American political history, 200

  Great Migration, 205

  Great Recession, 244, 284, 339, 343

  Green, William, 174

  Greif, Avner, 88, 92, 344

  growth, culture of, 77

  Gutenberg, Johannes, 47

  Habsburg Empire, 85

  Hammer, Michael, 326

  Hansen, Alvin, 179, 342

  Hargreaves, James, 102–3

  Harlem, 1

  Harper, Kyle, 37

  Hawking, Stephen, 36

  hazardous jobs, end of, 195, 198

  health conditions, during Industrial Revolution, 114–15

  Heaton, Herbert, 37

  Heckman, James, 351

  Heilbroner, Robert, 335

  Hellenism, technological creativity of, 39

  Henderson, Rebecca, 305, 331

  Hero of Alexandria, 39

  high school graduates, employment opportunities for, 237

  high school movement (1910–40), 214

  Himmelfarb, Gertrude, 268

  Hindenburg disaster, 110

  hinterland, cheap labor and housing of, 261

  history deniers, 23

  Hitler, Adolf, 12

  Hobbes, Thomas, 8, 46

  Hobsbawm, Eric, 7

  Hoover, Herbert, 211

  horseless age, 164

  horse technology, 43, 163

  Hounshell, David, 148, 150

  household revolution, 155–56

  housing, zoning and, 361–62

  housing bubble, 282

  human capital accumulation, indicators of, 133–34

  Humphries, Jane, 103, 121

  Hurst, Erik, 338

  Huskisson, William, 109–10

  Hyperloop, 363

  IBM, 231

  Ibsen, Henrik, 17

  Ice Age, 64, 76

  identity politics, 278

  “idiocy of rural life,” 62–64

  income(s): disparities of, 61; reshuffling of, 287

  income tax (Britain), introduction of, 133

  incubators, nursery cities serving as, 261

  industrial bourgeoisie, 267

  industrial capitalism, rise of, 218

  industrial centers, rise of, 115

  industrial espionage, 6

  industrialization, first episode of, 16

  industrial organization, fundamental principle of, 229

  Industrial Revolution, 68, 70; alcoholism, 123; in Britain, 329; Britain’s edge during, 19; British income tax, introduction of, 133; capital share of income, 131–32; child labor, 123, 134; children as robots of, 8–9; classic years of, 113; closing decades of, 138, 266; conditions of England question, 116–25; consumer revolution preceding, 68; cotton yarn manufacturing at dawn of, 100–101; divergence between output and wages, 131; domestic system, description of, 118; economic consequences of, 17; Engels’ pause, 131–37; engine of, 73; Englishmen left off worse by, 364; factories existing before, 94; gig mills, 128; golden age of industry, 118; government regulation, 137; hand-loom weaver, as tragic hero of Industrial Revolution, 121; health conditions, 114–15; human capital accumulation, indicators of, 133–34; labor income share captured, 114; industrial centers, rise of, 115; jobs created by, 16; key drivers of, 342; labor unions, bargaining power of, 137; Lancashire riots, 125, 127; leading figures of, 70; literacy rates, 134; Luddites, 125–31; machinery question, concerns over, 116; machinery riots, 127, 130; macroeconomic impact of, 94; material living conditions, decline of, 114, 120–21; mobility of workers, 122; obsolescence of worker skills, 124; origins of, 6, 80–91; political situation of workers, 129; reason for beginnings in Britain, 75; recipients of the gains of, 113; standard of living issue, 121; steam power, impact of on aggregate growth, 136; symbolic beginning of, 97; tax revenue, 133; technical change during closing decades, 139; technological progress, attitudes toward, 112; trajectory of inequality in Britain during, 217; true beginnings of, 100; unemployment, 113, 117, 125; victims of, 9; Victorian Age, machinery critics of, 119; wave of gadgets, 330; working poor, 113

  inequality: age of, beginnings of, 62; Neolithic rise in, 63

  inflation, 294

  information technology, first revolution in, 47

  inner-city ghettos, problems in, 258

  innovation, 257; nurseries for, 261

  innovation gap, 352

  in-person service jobs, 235

  inspiration without perspiration, 51–59

  installment credit, 159, 167

  institutional divergence (colonial Europe), 81

  Intel, 359

  interchangeable parts: concept of, 149; pioneering of, 74

  International Labour Organization (ILO), 181

  International Monetary Fund (IMF), 245

  international trade, rise of, 67, 69, 99

  Internet of things, 22

  internet traffic: spread of, 328; worldwide, 303

  inventions: agriculture, 54, 62; assembly line, 141, 365; barometer, 52, 59; bicycle, 165; camel saddle, 77; carding machine, 102; of classical times, 39; coke smelting, 108; electric starter, 166; iron, 36; light bulb, 2; mariner’s compass, 50; movable-type printing press, 47; nailed horseshoe, 43; navigable submarine, 52; personal computer (PC), 231; power loom, 105; spinning jenny, 102; steam digester, 55; steam engine, 52, 76; stirrup, 43; stocking-frame knitting machine, 54, 76; submarine, 73; telescope, 59; transistor, 231; typewriter, 161–62; washing machine, 27; water frame, 102; waterwheel, 38; wheel, 35

  Iron Age, 35

  iron laws of economics, 206

  James I of England, King, 52

  Japan, ascent of, 289

  JD. com, 313

  Jeffersonian individualism, 200

  Jenkinson, Robert, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, 130, 289

  Jerome, Harry, 13, 154, 198, 328

  job demand, creation of, 262

  Johnson, Lyndon, 184

  Joyce, James, 16

  Kaldor, Nicholas, 5, 205

  Kasparov, Garry, 301

  Katz, Lawrence, 135, 213, 245, 349

  Kay-Shuttleworth, James, 117, 229

  Kennedy, John F., 183

  Kettering, Charles, 166

  Keynes, John Maynard, 332, 334

  King, Gregory, 68

  knowledge work, 235, 259

  Komlos, John, 115

  Korea, ascent of, 289

  Korean War, 180

  Krugman, Paul, 12

  Kuznets, Simon, 5, 206–7

  Kuznets curve, 207, 212

  labor, division of, 228

  labor multiplier, 347

  Labor Party, rise of, 268

  labor productivity, gap between worker compensation and, 244

  labor unions, 212; bargaining power of, 201, 277; legalization in Britain, 190

  laissez-faire regime, 25, 267

  lamplighters, 1–2

  Lancashire riots of 1779, 90

  landed aristocracy, 83

  Landes, David, 9, 112, 118, 134, 343

  Land-Grant College Act of 1862, 364

  Latin Church, oppression of science by, 79

  laundress, vanishing of, 27, 160

  Lee, William, 10, 54

  Lefebvre des Noëttes, Richard, 43

  Leonardo da Vinci, 38, 51, 73

  Leontief, Wassily, 20, 338, 343

  Levy, Frank, 237, 302, 323

  liberal democracy, components of, 267

  Lindert, Peter, 61, 68, 114, 207, 211, 2
69, 271

  literacy, demand for, 76

  Liverpool-Manchester Railway, 109

  lobbying, corporate spending on, 275

  Locke, John, 83

  Lombe, John, 52, 99–100

  Lombe, Thomas, 6, 100

  London Steam Carriage, 109

  longshoremen, vanishing of, 172

  Louis XIV of France, King, 84

  Luddites, 9, 18, 125–31, 341; imprisoned, 20; new, 286–92; riots, 89, 92; uprisings, 265

  machinery question, 116, 174–88; adjustment problems, 177; automation, employment effects of, 180; computers, automation anxiety concerning, 183; elevator operators, 181–82; musicians, displaced, 177–78

  machinery riots, 9, 265, 289; absence of (America), 190; Britain, 90

  Maddison, Angus, 66

  Magellan, Ferdinand, 51, 67

  majority-rule voting system, 270

  Malthus, Thomas Robert, 4, 64, 73, 316, 345

  Malthusian logic, 345

  Malthusian trap, escape of, 65

  Manhattan Project, 74

  Manpower Training and Development Act (MDTA), 353

  Mantoux, Paul, 97, 101, 126

  Manufacture des Gobelins, 84

  Manufacture Royale de Glaces de Miroirs, 84

  manufacturing: blue-collar jobs, disappearance of, 251, 254; American system of manufacturing, pioneers of, 149; factory electrification, 151–55; interchangeable parts, concept of, 149

  Margo, Robert, 135, 145

  markets, integration of, 86

  Marx, Karl, 26, 47, 98, 239, 364

  Massey, Douglas, 256

  Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), 354

  mass production, 147–73; American system of manufacturing, pioneers of, 149; containerization, 171–72; direct drive, 153; factory electrification, 151–55; horseless age, 164; household revolution, 156; industries, 18; installment credit, 159, 167; interchangeable parts, concept of, 149; Model T, 167; unit drive, 153

  Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, 59

  Maybach, Wilhelm, 166

  McAfee, Andrew, 303, 339

  McCloskey, Deirdre, 70

  McCormick, Cyrus, 149, 168

  McLean, Malcom, 171

  mechanics, Galileo’s theory of, 53

  mechanization, age of automation vs. age of, 227

  median voter theories, 270

  medieval Christianity, 78

  mercantilism, flawed doctrine of, 83

  Mesopotamia, 35

  metals, discovery and exploitation of, 35

  Michigan Antitrust Reform Act of 1985, 359

  Microsoft, 306

  Middle Ages: agricultural technology in, 42; feudal order of, 57; onset of, 41; technical advances of, 50; traditional crafts of, 68

  middle class, descent of, 223–25; artificial intelligence, 228; automation, adverse consequences of, 240; cognitive divide, 238–43; computer-controlled machines, jobs eliminated by, 228; computers, 228–38; corporate profits, 244; division of labor between human and machine, 228; earnings gap, 230; Engels’ pause, return of, 243–48; golden postwar years, 239; Great Recession, 244; high school graduates, employment opportunities for, 237; industrial organization, fundamental principle of, 229; in-person service jobs, 235; knowledge workers, 235; labor productivity, gap between worker compensation and, 244; mechanization, age of automation vs. age of, 227; multipurpose robots, 242; rule-based logic, 228; Second Industrial Revolution, elimination of jobs created for machine operators during, 228; “symbolic analysts,” 235

  middle class, triumph of, 218–222; agriculture, mechanization of, 189; automotive industry, 202; baby boom, 221; blue-collar Americans, unprecedented wages of, 220; child labor, as opportunity cost to education, 214; collective bargaining, 192; corporate giants, 208; corporate paternalism, 200; education and technology, race between, 216; end of drudgery, 193–98; Engels’ pause, 219; factory electrification, 190, 195; farming jobs, decline of, 197, 203; Great Depression, 211; “great exception” in American political history, 200; Great Migration, 205; hazardous jobs, end of, 195, 198; high school movement (1910–40), 214; Jeffersonian individualism, 200; Kuznets curve, 207, 212; labor unions, 201, 212; leveling of American wages, 211; machinery riots, absence of, 190; middle class, emergence of, 192, 292; national minimum wage, introduction of, 211; new consumer goods, Americans’ growing appetite for, 203; New Deal, 200, 212; public schooling, 214; Second Industrial Revolution, 209, 217; skill-biased technological change, 213; tractor use, expansion of, 196; urban-rural wage gap, 209; Wall Street, depression suffered by, 211; welfare capitalism, 198, 200; welfare state, rise of, 221; white-collar employment, 197, 218

  Middle East, 77

  Milanovic, Branko, 217, 245

  mining, 194, 197

  Minoan civilization, 34

  mobile robotics, 342

  mobility, demands for, 348

  mobility vouchers, 360

  Model T, 167

  modern medicine, rise of, 22

  Mokyr, Joel, 19, 52, 76–77, 79

  Moore’s Law, 107, 301, 304

  Moravec’s paradox, 236

  Moretti, Enrico, 258, 262–63, 360

  Morgan, J. P., 208

  Morrill Act, 364

  mortality gap, 255

  mortality rate, 65

  mother of invention, 73

  motion-picture machine operator, 178

  multipurpose robots, 242, 261, 327

  Mumford, Lewis, 46

  Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, 86

  Murnane, Richard, 237, 302

  Murray, Charles, 252–53, 281

  Musk, Elon, 313

  Mutiny Act, 82

  Napoléon Bonaparte, 9

  Napoleonic War, 130

  National Electric Light Association (NELA), 159

  National Industrial Recovery Acts of 1933 and 1935, 200

  National Labor Relations (“Wagner”) Act of 1935, 200

  national minimum wage, introduction of, 211

  National Recovery Administration, 178

  nation states, rise of, 57

  Nazi Labor front, 12

  necessity, technological advances emerging from, 76

  Neolithic communities, 34

  Neolithic revolution, 33, 61

  Neural Machine Translation (NMT), 304

  neural networks, 303, 305, 314

  Newcomen, Thomas, 53, 106, 317

  New Deal, 200, 212, 272, 325

  Newton, Isaac, 54

  New World, discovery of, 19, 80

  Nicholas I of Russia, Emperor, 85

  Nobel Prize in Economics, 2, 4, 14, 20

  Nordhaus, William, 2, 230, 297

  Norman Conquest, 44

  North, Douglass C., 79

  North Africa, 77

  nursery cities, 261

  Nye, David, 155

  Obama, Barack, 238, 277, 290, 322

  occupational licensing, 358

  occupational statistics, 219

  OECD, 243, 321

  Offenbach, Jacques, 53

  Ogilvie, Sheilagh, 56–57

  Old Poor Law, 344

  OpenAI, 313

  opportunity gap, societal costs of, 351

  Osborne, Michael, 315

  Otto, Nikolaus, 166

  Ottoman Empire, 17, 66

  overproduction, crisis of, 266

  Owenism, 137

  ownership, concept of, 34

  Papin, Denis, 52, 86

  Pareto improvement, 13

  Paris Universal Exposition of 1867, 147

  Park Avenue, 1

  Paul, Lewis, 101

  Pax Romana, 41

  Pearl Harbor, attack on, 180

  Pennsylvania Railroad, 208

  Percy, Hiram, 165

  personal computer (PC), 231

  Peter the Great, Tsar, 58

  Piketty, Thomas, 210, 217, 277, 361

  “pink-collar” workforce, 241

  plant downsizings, 255

  Pliny the Elder, 36, 40

  Polanyi�
��s paradox, 234, 304

  polarization, politics of, 272–77; American dream, 280; Blue Wall, 284; civil rights legislation, 280; clientelism, 271; democracy and the middle class, 265–69; “disciplined self” identity, 279; economic inequality, 274, 277; Engels’ pause, 266, 287; feudal order, political participation in, 265; globalization, automation, and populism, 277–85; housing bubble, 282; identity politics, 278; inflation, 294; Labor Party, rise of, 268; labor unions, bargaining power of, 277; laissez-faire regime, 267; legitimacy of democracy, undermining of, 274; liberal democracy, components of, 267; lobbying, corporate spending on, 275; Luddite uprisings, 265; machinery riots, 265, 289; majority-rule voting system, 270; median voter theories, 270; middle class, rise of, 292; New Deal, 272; new Luddites, 286–92; political elites, 288; populist backlash, 293; Progressive Era, reform agenda of, 271; redistributive taxing and spending, 271; Rust Belt, 279, 283, 291; social class, Marx’s theory of, 265; socialism in America, 272; social media, 285; strikes, protection of car companies from, 276; technology types, distinguishing between, 287; unemployment, American social expenditure on, 274; United Auto Workers union, 276; universal white male suffrage, 270; vulnerability to populist revolutions, 264; welfare state, rise of, 272; welfare system, tax-financed, 267; working class, 278, 279

  Polhem, Christopher, 149

  political elites, 288

  poor laws, 344

  Pope, Albert A., 165

  population curse, 64–67

  populism, rise of, 277–85, 365

  populist backlash, 293

  populist renaissance, 21

  populist revolutions, vulnerability to, 264

  Port Clinton, Ohio, 250–51

  Portuguese caravel ship, 51

  power loom, arrival of, 15

  prefabrication, 311

  Price, Derek, 39

  printing press, Gutenberg’s, 17

  Procter and Gamble, 199

  productivity, populations and, 64

  Progressive Era, reform agenda of, 271

  property rights: in American culture, 200; concept of, 62, 91; importance of, 20; in preindustrial societies, 33

  Protestant Huguenots, 80

  Protestant movement, 46

  “proto-industrialization,” 68

  prototypes: adoption of, 323; Amazon Go store, 312; developed, 261; imperfect, 298, 314; inventions turned into, 73

  public clocks, 45

  public infrastructure projects, 363

  public schooling, 214

  purchasing power, 191

  Putnam, Robert, 250–51, 272, 276

  railroads: arrival of, 108; declining importance of, 170; as enabling technology for revolutions, 85; network, expansion in Britain, 110; revenues (America), 208

  Ramey, Valerie, 159, 332

  redistributive taxing and spending, 271

 

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