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

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  • Ewan McGaughey
  • Centre for Business Research

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Ewan McGaughey & Centre for Business Research, 2018. "Will Robots Automate Your Job Away? Full Employment, Basic Income, and Economic Democracy," Working Papers wp496, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
  • Handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp496
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    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/cbrwp496/
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Gill Hughes, 2018. "Desperately seeking the good society," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 33(6), pages 636-654, September.
    2. Antonio ALOISI & Valerio DE STEFANO, 2020. "Regulation and the future of work: The employment relationship as an innovation facilitator," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 159(1), pages 47-69, March.
    3. Kamerāde, Daiga & Wang, Senhu & Burchell, Brendan & Balderson, Sarah Ursula & Coutts, Adam, 2019. "A shorter working week for everyone: How much paid work is needed for mental health and well-being?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    4. Dimakatso Sekwati & Mbulaheni Albert Dagume, 2023. "Effect of Unemployment and Inflation on Economic Growth in South Africa," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 13(1), pages 35-45, January.
    5. Óscar Afonso & Elena Sochirca & Pedro Cunha Neves, 2022. "Robots and Humans: The Role of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in an Endogenous Growth Model," CEF.UP Working Papers 2201, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    6. Oscar Afonso & Rosa Forte, 2023. "How powerful are fiscal and monetary policies in a directed technical change model with humans and robots?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 3008-3032, July.
    7. Natasha Pa�o & Spiro Pa�o, 2020. "CIitizen�s Basic Income - The new promise of Populism in the edge of Technological unemployment," Academicus International Scientific Journal, Entrepreneurship Training Center Albania, issue 22, pages 59-66, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Robots; automation; inequality; democracy; unemployment; basic income; NAIRU; sheep; Luddites; washing machines; flying skateboards;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • E50 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - General
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E00 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - General
    • E02 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Institutions and the Macroeconomy
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • K1 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J58 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Public Policy
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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