Tag: conservative

Unions should be a cornerstone of economic policy

Unions should be a cornerstone of economic policy

If Charles Dickens were time warped into this U.S. election cycle, he would be astonished — not by the vitriol, restrained by 19th century standards, but by candidates extolling the virtues of manufacturing jobs.

When the Industrial Revolution dawned in Dickens’ time, such jobs were not up there with apple pie and motherhood; they were seen as mindless and monotonous, sucking up what was then the bottom of the labor pool — women and children — and putting them in horrific, dangerous conditions.

So, how did these jobs become the ideals of a halcyon past?Simple: they started paying a lot better. […]

Neither Trump nor Clinton is addressing the biggest challenge to jobs: automation

Neither Trump nor Clinton is addressing the biggest challenge to jobs: automation

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both promising to bring good-paying jobs back to America, but analysts say neither of them has addressed one of the biggest challenges looming ahead: the impact of automation and the rise of artificial intelligence.

Some argue that the challenge will soon become impossible to ignore.

“Job losses due to automation and robotics are often overlooked in discussions about the unexpected rise of outside political candidates like Trump and Bernie Sanders,” Moshe Vardi, an expert on artificial intelligence at Rice University, said before this month’s conventions .Vardi pointed out that manufacturing employment has […]

Neither Trump nor Clinton is addressing the biggest challenge to jobs: automation

Neither Trump nor Clinton is addressing the biggest challenge to jobs: automation

Image by Danomyte, via Shutterstock Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both promising to bring good-paying jobs back to America, but analysts say neither of them has addressed one of the biggest challenges looming ahead: the impact of automation and the rise of artificial intelligence.

Some argue that the challenge will soon become impossible to ignore.

“Job losses due to automation and robotics are often overlooked in discussions about the unexpected rise of outside political candidates like Trump and Bernie Sanders,” Moshe Vardi, an expert on artificial intelligence at Rice University, said before this month’s conventions .Vardi pointed out […]

Anna Turley: In an Uber economy, an active state can ensure the rewards reach the many and not the few

Anna Turley: In an Uber economy, an active state can ensure the rewards reach the many and not the few

Technological change is already beginning to transform our world, changing the way we live and work. The challenge for progressives is to find ways of managing the disruption so that all parts of our society can benefit. As my colleague Tom Watson MP has argued, the question is how we make this transformative process our friend and not our foe.

The “job for life” is now rare, replaced with less secure work and more self-employment. The next generation of automation could soon see more jobs replaced by robots. For policymakers this means grasping for new means to manage the resulting […]

The Enemies of Economic Independence

The founders sought more than political independence from Europe. They also sought to secure America’s economic independence. To that end, the second bill enacted by the first Congress was the Tariff Act of 1789 , the stated purpose of which was "the encouragement and protection of manufactures." The end result of America’s reliance on the tariff was both prosperity and economic independence, as American manufacturing became the envy of the world and Americans ended up relying on fellow Americans for most of the goods they purchased. This happy situation was brought to an end by our elites’ fatuous embrace […]

The digital economy needs defending from the hard left and the far right

The digital economy needs defending from the hard left and the far right

Matt Hancock, Minister for the Cabinet Office Automate work, humanize jobs. That needs to be the mantra of the digital economy, according to Matt Hancock, who as Minister for the Cabinet Office in the UK government, has responsibility in part for fostering the digital revolution.

Hancock set out his stall at the 2016 Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture. For the benefit of non-UK readers, Sir Keith Joseph was a British politician, whose long career saw him serve as a minister under four Conservative Party Prime Ministers – Harold McMillan and Alec Douglas-Home in the 1960s, Edward Heath in the 1970s and […]