Don’t Fear the Robots

Here’s an article which argues that we should welcome an increase in automation and productivity:

[…] don’t worry that the robots will take your job. Be terrified that they won’t.

The article argues (and supports) the idea that worker productivity has slowed down, and this is harming the American worker, much more than inequality:

The 2015 Economic Report of the President calculated that if productivity growth had continued at its 1948–1973 pace for the past 40 years, the average household’s income would be $30,000 higher today. By contrast, had inequality stayed at its 1973 level for the same period, Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers calculates that the average household’s income would be only $9,000 higher.

The productivity issue is bigger than inequality, in other words. And yet it’s much less discussed.