Automation Is the Natural, Job-Enhancing Order of Humanity

Last week Elon Musk made waves with his latest effort to promote automation on our roads and in our homes. Seeing the sleek taxicabs and helpful robots gave hope to some, while instilling fear in others.

The fear is nothing new. In recent years there has been much hand-wringing about the possibility of man’s labor being replaced by Artificial Intelligence and robots, making human beings completely useless in the effort to meet the needs of our fellow man. In fact, this fear has grown so much that the discussion of a Universal Basic Income—which suspiciously sounds like 1980s-era welfare on steroids—has become a favorite topic among Washington, DC’s chattering class.

While this worry is nothing new, neither is automation. Years ago, we called it “mechanization,” but in truth it has been part of our lives since the beginning of time. Think about it: what happened when men lashed horses to carriages? Automation, of course. The horse handled the task of providing locomotion, which freed the man to focus on navigation, and eventually providing amenities (such as meals) to the passengers he was transporting. Today, the horse has been replaced by railroad locomotives, motor coaches, and airplanes. All of these tools play the same role as the horse, which is to assist the man by automating various tasks.

With each evolution, fewer men have been needed for many functions and that is the crux of this fear. Yet, history has shown us that each time a new technology has come about, the result has not been widespread unemployment and desolation. It has been the freeing of more people to participate in other jobs and careers. The only thing that has slowed this process are rules and regulations imposed from above, such as government protection for unions or staffing mandates written into regulation or law.

The diesel-electric locomotive offers a prime example. Replacing labor-intensive steam locomotives, the diesel-electric offered railroads the ability to reduce the number of crew members on each train. After all, without the need to feed a mobile, industrial boiler with large amounts of coal or oil and water, the job of “fireman” was no longer needed. Many firemen, having spent significant amounts of time with locomotive engineers were either fully- or mostly qualified to operate locomotives themselves. That meant, they would have been outstanding candidates for promotion to engineer, including the requisite increases in pay and seniority.

With lower costs for each train, the railroads of the day would have been able to operate more trains at a greater profit by providing specialized services for each customer at rates that work for each party. Except, it didn’t happen that way. Some states mandated crew sizes by law, while the unions themselves sought federal crew size guarantees, ultimately gaining “job security” through labor agreements. Recently, the same movie was replayed when Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was the face of a new Biden Administration rule requiring two men on every freight or passenger train operated by the largest U.S. rail carriers. Oh, and let’s not forget government mandates on rates, which prevented the profitable provision of personalized services.

The result? Railroads ended up running fewer trains, not more, and jobs were lost. These jobs didn’t evaporate due to the diesel-electric locomotive, but because of the negative economic environment created by government fiat…out of fear.

To be clear, I don’t mean to cast railroad unions in a negative light. However, I do see the rail industry reaction as a harbinger of what will come in a variety of industries (both unionized and not) if the fear of automation is not dispelled. It is commonly believed that Uber drivers and software developers will see their ranks gutted by improvements in automation and Artificial Intelligence. This fearmongering means that it won’t be long before each group has a vocal lobby pounding the pavement around the U.S. Capitol seeking the same type of “protections” granted to rail workers.  

But let’s ask ourselves: how many software developers were around when diesel-electric locomotive helped expand railroad automation in the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s? What about Uber drivers?

Today’s software developers have the ability to work from nearly anywhere at any hour, whereas their 1940s-era grandfathers (most of whom were not developing software) were often tied to a clock and a physical working location (be it on a factory floor, shop floor, in an office, or on a farm), mandated to be at that physical location by their managers, and their opportunities for advancement were largely tied to where they lived at the time. In 2024, the opposite of each of these factors is true. So, why do we fear the next generation of automation?

Uber drivers are even more interesting: in the mid-20th Century, people driving their personal vehicles to provide transportation to strangers were unvetted “gypsy” cab drivers…and were feared, not embraced. Today, one can earn a full income by legally transporting others in their personal vehicle. Their passengers—and payment methods—are vetted, and the drivers can work at the times of the day which work best for them.  All of this is thanks to a comparatively fearless embrace of automation.

Far from being an abomination that brings desolation, automation is the natural order of humanity. Yet, if we try to tie it down by laws and regulations, we will be doing nothing more than foreclosing on our own future successes.

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