• meeeeetch@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The Luddites had a point about the ‘de-skilling’ of work and the alienation of labor. And they regularly cross-dressed.

      These people are just obsessed with enforcing misery.

    • Drusas@kbin.run
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      2 months ago

      The Luddites weren’t wrong. Their name has been badly misused. They were skilled professionals who were concerned that they would no longer have work as a result of the industrial revolution. They were largely right in that assessment. That doesn’t mean you should try to hold up societal/technological progress like they did, but their concerns were valid. They weren’t just afraid of technology as they are generally portrayed.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        That doesn’t mean you should try to hold up societal/technological progress like they did

        A lot of what they protested was industry consolidation and price fixing.

          • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Depends on the country, but that was not my point. Overall employment has not suffered at the hands of technology; it improved efficiency, yes, and resulted in some occupations needing fewer (or no) people, however people found work in other areas.

          • catloaf@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            Those aren’t skills. Driving a truck is a skill, and there’s no shortage of demand for truck drivers today.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Industry consolidation and outsourcing reduces the local labor demand by setting monopsony rates for workers.

          This consolidation is often facilitated by legal enclosures, environmental degradation, and state subsidies/contracts for political insiders.

          So you end up with working people who lose access to primitive accumulation, while big industrial owners are able to undercut skilled tradesmen with below cost merchandise in a recessionary economy.

          • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            It would not have been ethical with increasing populations and no means to scale up effectively to meet their needs. Individuals, sure, but not overall; technology has replaced people in specific situations, people who then went on to get employment in other areas.