Will Robots Automate Your Job Away? Full Employment, Basic Income, and Economic Democracy

Ewan McGaughey and Centre for Business Research

Working Papers from Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge

Abstract: Will the internet, robotics and artificial intelligence mean a 'jobless future'? A recent narrative says tomorrow's technology will fundamentally differ from cotton mills, steam engines, or washing machines. Automation will be less like post-WW2 demobilisation for soldiers, and more like the car for horses. Driverless vehicles will oust truckers and taxi drivers. Hyper-intelligent clouds will oust financial advisers, doctors, and journalists. We face more 'natural' or 'technological' unemployment than ever. Government, it is said, must enact a basic income, because so many jobs will vanish. Also, maybe robots should become 'electronic persons', the subjects of rights and duties, so they can be taxed. This narrative is endorsed by prominent tech-billionaires, but it is flawed. Everything depends on social policy. Instead of mass unemployment and a basic income, the law can achieve full employment and fair incomes. This article explains three views of the causes of unemployment: as 'natural', as stemming from irrationality or technology, or as caused by laws that let people restrict the supply of capital to the job market. Only the third view has any credible evidence to support it. After WW2, 42% of UK jobs were redundant (actually, not hypothetically) but social policy maintained full employment, and it can be done again. Unemployment is driven by inequality of wealth and of votes in the economy. Democratic governments should reprogramme the law: for full employment and universal fair incomes. The owners of the robots will not automate your job away, if we defend economic democracy.

Keywords: Robots; automation; inequality; democracy; unemployment; basic income; NAIRU; sheep; Luddites; washing machines; flying skateboards (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D6 E00 E02 E12 E32 E50 E51 E52 E6 E62 J01 J20 J23 J32 J41 J51 J58 J6 K1 K22 K31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-lab, nep-mac and nep-pay
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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