Atkinson on How Technology is Making Things Worse

Technology and its Impact on Employment

Atkinson contends that technology is worsening the situation by increasing exploitation of vital service providers, producing more unemployment, lowering the quality of goods and services, and accelerating impoverishment. Although technology produces jobs, they are just fleeting. The requirement for humans in the production process has been reduced to a minimum or eliminated entirely by modern systems. There is less and less demand for human intervention as practically all operations become automatic. Retrenchments are the effect of this. It is false to believe that widespread layoffs will lead to increased demands on workers in other fields. Technology is making it worse because people's ability to spend money decreases without a job. With the low demand for goods and services, further cutting of jobs occurs, and the cycle continues.

The Impact on Money Supply

Atkinson emphasizes the significance of the money supply in the population. When the supply of money is high in the population, the purchasing power increases, and the community is kept wealthy. However, technology is causing a rise in poverty because it limits money circulation by cutting employment. Given that the community believes that one must be employed to get paid, it becomes difficult for the dole to be extended to unemployed individuals. Therefore, without the dole, the supply of money will continue to diminish with more jobs being cut. The result of this is poverty and the erosion of the quality of goods and services.

The Negative Impact of Technology

It is deducible that Atkinson asserts that by cutting down employment, technology is doing more harm than good in society. This is consistent with the utilitarian view that an action is considered morally right if it maximizes the good. In this case, however, technology seems to be leaving the community worse off than it was. The advancement of technology is causing more harm than good to the nation in the form of social chaos and economic stagnation. According to Atkinson, it is not moral to continue believing that technology changes nothing. The community cannot accept that machines are displacing people at the workplace. It is immoral for the community to continue believing that the jobs lost by technology will be recreated in another field. This continued denial of the problems caused by technology has caused increased poverty, exploitation by essential services corporations, social confusion, and a deterioration of the quality of goods and services. Therefore, Atkinson tries to show that technology causes more problems than benefits to the society. It will be morally right if the community accepts this fact and tries to resolve the problems. In addition, the prejudice of the Protestant work ethic in the community means the employed cannot be supplied with money to keep their purchasing power up.

An Agreement with Atkinson's Argument

I agree fully with Atkinson's argument that technology is making things worse, but the community does not seem to realize it. Atkinson provides a convincing argument on the effect of the advancement of technology, particularly on employment. Also, Atkinson demonstrates how increased unemployment leaves the community in a worse state than it was before. Most of the effects of technology as described by Atkinson are evident today. In regards to social confusion, for example, nowadays skills and qualifications cannot guarantee one employment. In addition, people spend a considerable amount of time waiting in order to converse with a human operator. Therefore, I agree to a great extent with Atkinson's argument that technology is making things worse for the community.