May 26, 2016
The Washington Post has an article telling readers that a former McDonald’s CEO is warning that a $15 minimum wage will lead to widespread use of robots at fast food restaurants. The piece goes on to warn about the danger that robots pose to jobs more generally:
“Robotics and artificial intelligence are hot areas in the technology sector, and the World Economic Forum estimated earlier this year that their rise would cause a net loss of 5.1 million jobs over the next five years.
“Some experts are so concerned about looming unemployment that they are calling for a basic income, a regular stipend to be paid to citizens who are likely to lose their jobs and cannot be retrained.”
When robots replace workers it is known as “productivity growth.” Productivity growth has actually been incredibly slow in the last decade and has even been negative the last two years.
It is not clear who the “some experts” are (names please), but actual experts know that the economy’s problem is too little productivity growth, not too much. Productivity growth allows for higher living standards. With more rapid productivity growth we can either have more goods or services or work fewer hours to have the same amount of goods and services.
Of course this depends on their being enough demand in the economy. Lack of demand can lead to unemployment. It is not hard to create demand. For example, we could have the government spend money. That is not hard in principle, but deficit cultists, like the Washington Post editorial board and much of the leadership in Congress (in both parties) start yelling and screaming about budget deficits.
We could try to get the trade deficit down, for example by lowering the value of the dollar against other currencies, which makes our goods and services more competitive. People in policy positions generally don’t like to discuss this policy, which would hurt manufacturers like GE which have relocated much of their production overseas and major retailers like Walmart, which has profited by establishing low-cost supply chains.
We can also take steps to reduce average work time, for example by promoting work-sharing as an alternative to layoffs. We can also push for paid family leave, sick days, and vacations, like they have in other wealthy countries.
And, we could discourage the Fed from raising interest rates to choke off demand. Higher interest rates are a policy explicitly designed to keep people from getting jobs.
In short, there are many ways to ensure that the economy has enough demand to employ workers, but the Washington Post would rather yell about robots.
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