Worker displacement due to technology changes is nothing new. Neither are the government’s efforts to address the issue. In a recent paper Scott Wolla, of the St. Louis Fed, reminded us that as early as 1589 Queen Elizabeth refused to grant the inventor of a mechanical knitting machine a patent for fear it would put knitters out of work. In the 18th century the Luddite movement, which began in Nottingham, England, ignited the passions of textile workers who feared that by the time they learned a new job they would be replaced by the new machines ushered in by […]
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