Archive Report
Archive Report
Dilemma in Less Work and More Leisure
When president johnson signed the bill authorizing a new National Commission on Technology, Automation and Economic Progress, he said that automation should be a boon to the working man rather than a “job destroyer.”1 Advancing technology, if properly directed, would in time create new jobs to replace those eliminated. Authorities in the field generally accept this optimistic view. But they are convinced that, no matter how many new jobs come into being as a result of automation, there will be a continuing shrinkage in the total number of man-hours worked even when the economy is going at full blast.
Underlying the new commission's projected study of the impact of automation on American life, therefore, will be new and troubling ...