Mark Andreessen, the billionaire computer programer turned venture capitalist, has expressed many foolish things while giving his opinion on anything at all, is cited in Politico:
'LUMP OF LABOR' SHOWDOWN — In an interview with New York's Kevin Roose this week, venture capitalist and perpetual optimist Mark Andreessen pooh-poohs fears that automated technology will reduce the total number of jobs in the economy. Andreessen claims such fears exemplify the “lump-of-labor fallacy.” This is the (so far) false belief, first debunked by the 19thcentury Fabian D.F. Schloss, that new technology destroys more jobs than are created through the enhanced productivity and economic growth that result. "But it’s not that there’s no longer the need for work," Andreessen told Roose about automation, referencing the alleged fallacies of economist John Maynard Keynes. "Keynes was writing in the ’20s and ’30s, when it was a serious issue whether you were going to have enough food or whether you were going to have heat in your house. But he fell for the same lump-of-labor fallacy these guys keep falling for, which is the assumption that there is a set of needs that, once you’ve reached them, are done." Technology, Andreessen argued, will make some work obsolete while greatly expanding the need for labor in emerging industries. this is the full item, contained in a Politico story, found here: http://www.politico.com/morningshift/1014/morningshift15788.html _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
