Automatic (not) for the People

The fear of and protest against automation has a long history. Time and again, people have tried to take matters into their own hands because their livelihood was at stake. One such protest movement was led by Ned Ludd, who in the 19th century gathered a group of textile workers and weavers who destroyed weaving machinery as a form of protest. This group was then called the Luddites.

According to a survey by Pews Research Center, a majority of American respondents (58 percent) think there should be limits on how many jobs businesses can replace with robots and computers, even if they can do those jobs better and more cheaply than humans can. Others think that if businesses can receive better work at lower cost by replacing humans, they are justified in doing so.