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Is Technological Unemployment Real? An Assessment and a Plea for Abundance Economics

Abstract

In our increasingly automated economy, technology has replaced much of the need for non-elective human labor: in others words, we increasingly face a situation of technological unemployment. Thus automation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, technological unemployment worsens income inequality and wealth disparity. On the other hand, there are purported gains in productivity and economic growth. I posit Abundance Economics as a new theory of economics that addresses this problematic disparity in two phases. First, in the automation economy phase, there would be an alleviation of material-goods scarcity for human survival, and second, in the actualization economy phase, there would be a focus on social goods for greater human thriving.

Keywords

  • Income Inequality
  • Industrial Revolution
  • Actualization Economy
  • Social Good
  • Social Pathology

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Correspondence to Melanie Swan .

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Swan, M. (2017). Is Technological Unemployment Real? An Assessment and a Plea for Abundance Economics. In: LaGrandeur, K., Hughes, J. (eds) Surviving the Machine Age. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51165-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51165-8_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51164-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51165-8

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