July 11, 2018
As we remain mired in the longest period of weak productivity growth in recorded US history, the NYT ran yet another piece on coping with the problem of automation creating mass job displacement. This one is focused on the developing world and asks how developing countries could cope with massive displacement of workers in agriculture and manufacturing.
Incredibly (perhaps not incredibly) the possibility of ignoring the patent and copyright monopolies that rich countries demand does not appear on the list of remedies. If new technologies were available in a free market without these government imposed monopolies, it would mean that developing countries could hugely increase their agricultural and manufacturing output at very low cost.
That should be a good story for them, not a crisis. But apparently, reporters are not allowed to raise questions about patent and copyright monopolies in The New York Times.
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