Will Robots Take Over The Labor Market?

Many people will argue that in the future technological advances such as robots will take over simple human tasks and have many people looking for a job. In an article published in 2011 titled "Rise against the Machine" argues that workers will not be able to keep up with technological change. The article says that soon companies will able to eliminate millions of jobs. The jobs eliminated would be one where workers do mundane tasks such as cashiers. There have been studies shown that it is not as bad as we think. One researcher, David Autor, argues against this theory. He says that economists look at simple production functions that say that capital and labor are two different components and together they make GDP. He argues that in the real world capital and labor actually come together. He believes that technology will complement labor. This means that technology will replace mundane tasks that can easily be automated and allow workers to handle more complex issues. An example is a worker that prints airline tickets. He says that now a robot will print the ticket so the worker can handle issues such as cancelled flights or people changing flights. In the end robots will actually help workers become more productive by allowing them to focus on more complex issues without dealing with mundane tasks. Also, humans will always have a cognitive advantage over robots and firms will not be willing to allow robots to take over these jobs.