I’m sure everyone has had the experience where at the mention of some new or potential productivity enhancing invention, somebody laments “what about all the X that this will put out of work?”. This concern isn’t always voiced or seemingly brought to mind, and I can’t put my finder on what determines which innovations set it off in people’s mind and which ones don’t. Because this creative destruction -as Schumpeter called it- is all around us, and sometimes people simply enjoy the benefits without realizing the jobs lost. A better appreciation for how creative destruction makes us better off can be had if we keep it in mind at when we think about all technologies and innovations, rather then only considering it when the destruction part is most obvious. To wit, the New York Times reporting on the ongoing destruction of point-and-click camera market by smartphones:
Cameras, mostly point-and-shoots, are still found in 82 percent of American households, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. But for many consumers, the point-and-shoot they have now may be the last they ever own as they favor the camera in their smartphone….
The sales figures tell the story. While smartphone sales in the United States continue to skyrocket, unit sales of point-and-shoot cameras fell nearly 16 percent from 2008, according to the market research firm NPD Group. That corresponds to a decline of 24 percent in dollars, to $1.9 billion , from $2.4 billion….
Facebook says that since the site was founded in 2004, its users have uploaded more than 50 billion photos, making that feature one of its most popular. Flickr, the photo-sharing site, says users add more than three million photos to its inventory every day. Yet Flickr’s data shows that the most popular camera among its 55 million users is a smartphone, Apple’s iPhone 3G. Not a single point-and-shoot makes it into its top five.
Keep stories like these in your head for when someone argues that we are worse off because of some creative destruction.
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Sunday ~ December 5th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Yglesias » Creative Destruction and the Welfare State
[...] Ozimek observes that this is an example of “creative destruction” in action and says we should [...]
Sunday ~ December 5th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Freddie
The single most important thing to understand about blogger attitudes towards jobs is that bloggers don’t do any of the jobs that they opine about. So when a libertarian blogger mocks workplace health and safety regulations, the important thing to remember is that that libertarian makes his living sitting at a desk, and not in a warehouse or on a factory floor or in a coal mine.
Meanwhile, you can callously dismiss the loss of human welfare for the people being put out of work by the rise of whatever new technology, because you don’t work in those industries, and thus don’t give a shit. Your perspective is entirely the product of your limited empathy.
But, hey. You can play Snood on your phone, so who cares about all of the people suffering for lack of work?
Sunday ~ December 5th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Adam Ozimek
And liberal bloggers and commenters aren’t the unemployed who can’t find a factory floor or coal mine job because of burdensome regulations that keep employment below where it would otherwise be. Meanwhile, you can callously dismiss the loss of human welfare for the people being put out of work by the rise of whatever regulation, because you’re not looking for work in those industries, and thus don’t give a shit.
Or, I could not impugn your motives and character and instead assume you do give a shit, and you simply have a different viewpoint than me about what policies best increase welfare in our society.
Monday ~ December 6th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Yglesias» Creative Destruction and the Welfare State « Politics
[...] Ozimekobservesthat this is an example of“creative destruction” in action and says we [...]