The robots are taking over! Well, not exactly taking over, but they are starting to creep into more than just our daily lives. Most notable is the rise of self-driving cars. As the industry leaders have stated, the ultimate goal of these cars is to replace every single human driven car and make traffic jams and car accidents a thing of the past. Obviously, this is a great thing for society as it will reduce our day-to-day commute and save us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on gas, car insurance, and overall car maintenance. This is the free market doing its job, working to move past a heavily regulated environment. It’s time to move the auto industry past the regulations that have held it back for too long.
If I can save a huge portion of my income by only using the automated cars that replaced the Uber and Lyft drivers, I will do it without thinking twice. However, what dangers does this potentially present us with? The biggest of all is what will happen to the jobs of people who drive cabs, Ubers, Lyfts, commercial trucks, and much more. The transportation industry is one of the largest in the country, employing millions both at home and abroad. Will all of these drivers suddenly become useless and be forced to go find a new job? Probably.
But at the same time when one door closes, isn’t another one suppose to open? Will the free market do its job and suddenly invent a new industry or grow so that all of these people will absorb back into the job market? Now that I have more disposable income, I will boost another sector of the economy and thus help to shift all of the lost work there. What will that industry be? I can’t really say since I can’t predict the future.
One of the other major concerns is will people stop buying cars? If you can now call an automated car from anywhere in the country and have it show up at a scheduled time and place with the tap of a button, why would you bother to buy a car? Does this also mean a major slow in car manufacturing and the loss of thousands of jobs? Again, the answer is probably. The same exact scenario repeats itself yet again.
People on the left think this is now the opportunity to present social security for all, or as they now call it a universal basic income. (The left likes to rebrand the names of their failed policies and try them again. i.e. because Bernie’s Democratic Socialism is somehow different from Hitler’s National Socialism?) The only difference is that you don’t have to work for your money, a check simply shows up in the mail. So where exactly does the money come from? More taxes on the already overly taxed working people of this country. Why does the man who didn’t work deserve the money of a man who got up before dawn and worked for 12+ hours to just get by? Economist Thomas Sowell once said, “I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you’ve earned, but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.” As always feel free to fact check me and remember to trust, but verify.
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