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Comment by Macha | Hacker News Reader

Also fails to distinguish between “society came out of it fine” (generally true) and “individuals came out of it fine” (much more mixed of a track record)

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Yes. And individuals largely don’t come out fine. We have this notion of “retraining” but that’s not real. It’s like how studies show it’s very hard to make friends as an adult. Most people whose jobs were shipped overseas in deindustrialization never recovers.

> We have this notion of “retraining” but that’s not real.

While I haven't been "retrained" my understanding was the real issue that it's lip-service.

Like the Department of Labor doesn't actually show up to a closed down factory with staff to train people in some other vocation.

University-educated "Knowledge workers" should be much more capable of learning new things than the average factory production line worker.

We create 25% more new jobs that never existed before than jobs that are forever destroyed as obsolete every year. In the USA.

An yet the unemployment numbers are as they are, because even when wanting to get them, those jobs aren't made available due to ridiculous hiring practices, or any other set of reasons that leave empty slots.

It’s harder to go from 30 years as an assembly worker to a career as a developer than go from developer to say product manager or whatever roles will survive.

In companies where I worked there were about two dozen developers for every product manager, sometimes more.

That’s why I said ”or whatever role”

1. There's far less product managers 2. What makes you so sure that product managers won't be automated away? The breathless pronouncements from the people running these companies aren't that there won't be software developers, it's that there won't be knowledge workers.

That’s why I said ”whatever” roles. Doubt you think no a single role will exist in 10 years?

As someone that as teenager observe traditional shoe factories being automated away, or the production being sent offshore, the robot factory can function with 10% of the original staff, or even less.

Now for the sake of argument multiply the 90% of the employees that were laid off, with the amount of companies that do the same, there aren't enough roles whatever those may be for everyone else now at the job center.

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