Are robots really taking our jobs? | Jamie Merisotis | Big Think

Many people are worried about the Robot-Zombie Apocalypse. The idea that the robots are going to come and eat our jobs. But at the end of the day, technology has always created more jobs than it's destroyed.

We've always had this view as a society that there's a learning phase of your life, and then there's a working phase of your life. We now understand that learning and working are parallel processes. Why? Well, because work is ever-changing. We have to prepare people for the work that we, as humans, are uniquely qualified to do.

That means that we need to use our human traits and capabilities to actually do the work that machines can't do. Those human traits and capabilities that allow us to be human—to be empathetic, to be compassionate, to be a collaborator; well, those are the same things that allow us to be successful as a democratic society—to be ethical with each other, to actually understand someone else's viewpoint.

If we don't use our education system to renew our democratic system, we face an existential risk. Our democracy's at risk, and as we think about the risks of that democracy, we have to think about how we're actually going to prepare people to be better participants in that democratic system.

Education's the key because it allows us to discern the difference between fact and fiction, between right and wrong, between ethical and unethical. Learning and working and democracy are all coming together at a very important time in history. We need to better design our learning system to actually focus on preparing people not just for good jobs and a good life, but to be effective participants in a democratic system.

Everybody has a role to play in addressing democratic renewal. Employers have an important role to play in making sure that their employees get access to the education and training that they need to not only allow them to be effective at their jobs, but to be better engaged in their communities and their families.

Education institutions need to do a better job of not just preparing people to be more informed about civic processes and ideas and systems, but actively engage in that system. And individuals need to use their own agency in order to actually make sure that they're engaged in that process and taking charge of their own learning.

The reality is that the new jobs being created are going to require a post-high school education. So in March of 2021, in the U.S. economy, we created 916,000 new jobs. Of those 916,000 new jobs, 7,000 went to people with a high school credential or less, and all the rest went to people with a degree, a certificate, a certification, or another credential.

The jobs that are going to be available now, today, and tomorrow, are going to require high-quality post-secondary credentials. I believe that brighter days are ahead, but we've gotta do a better job of preparing people for the future, not simply leaving it to chance or opportunity, but actually being very deliberate about recognizing where the shortcomings are, ensuring that people who haven't had opportunities in the past, have those opportunities.

Catching people who may have slipped through the system earlier in life, and bringing them back into the system. To me, being deliberate about the choices and about the ways in which we can serve individuals in making better choices for themselves, that will ultimately allow us to be successful as a democratic society...