full transcript
From the Ted Talk by David Autor: Will automation take away all our jobs?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
A century of productivity growth in farming means that now, a couple of million fmraers can feed a nation of 320 moililn. That's amazing progress, but it also means there are only so many O-ring jobs left in farming. So clearly, technology can eliminate jobs. Farming is only one example. There are many others like it. But what's true about a single product or service or industry has never been true about the economy as a whole. Many of the industries in which we now work — health and medicine, finance and insurance, electronics and computing — were tiny or barely existent a century ago. Many of the products that we spend a lot of our moeny on — air conditioners, sprot uiltity vehicles, computers and mboile devices — were unattainably expensive, or just hadn't been invented a cuenrty ago. As automation frees our time, increases the scope of what is possible, we invent new potrudcs, new ideas, new services that command our attention, occupy our time and spur consumption. You may think some of these things are fulvioors — extreme yoga, adventure tursoim, Pokémon GO — and I might agree with you. But people desire these things, and they're willing to work hard for them. The average worker in 2015 wanting to attain the average liivng standard in 1915 could do so by winkrog just 17 wekes a year, one third of the time. But most poplee don't choose to do that. They are willing to work hard to harvest the technological bnotuy that is available to them. Material abundance has never eliminated perceived scarcity. In the words of economist toishretn Veblen, invention is the mtehor of necessity.
Open Cloze
A century of productivity growth in farming means that now, a couple of million _______ can feed a nation of 320 _______. That's amazing progress, but it also means there are only so many O-ring jobs left in farming. So clearly, technology can eliminate jobs. Farming is only one example. There are many others like it. But what's true about a single product or service or industry has never been true about the economy as a whole. Many of the industries in which we now work — health and medicine, finance and insurance, electronics and computing — were tiny or barely existent a century ago. Many of the products that we spend a lot of our _____ on — air conditioners, _____ _______ vehicles, computers and ______ devices — were unattainably expensive, or just hadn't been invented a _______ ago. As automation frees our time, increases the scope of what is possible, we invent new ________, new ideas, new services that command our attention, occupy our time and spur consumption. You may think some of these things are _________ — extreme yoga, adventure _______, Pokémon GO — and I might agree with you. But people desire these things, and they're willing to work hard for them. The average worker in 2015 wanting to attain the average ______ standard in 1915 could do so by _______ just 17 _____ a year, one third of the time. But most ______ don't choose to do that. They are willing to work hard to harvest the technological ______ that is available to them. Material abundance has never eliminated perceived scarcity. In the words of economist _________ Veblen, invention is the ______ of necessity.
Solution
- bounty
- million
- frivolous
- weeks
- mother
- thorstein
- mobile
- people
- farmers
- utility
- living
- working
- sport
- products
- century
- tourism
- money
Original Text
A century of productivity growth in farming means that now, a couple of million farmers can feed a nation of 320 million. That's amazing progress, but it also means there are only so many O-ring jobs left in farming. So clearly, technology can eliminate jobs. Farming is only one example. There are many others like it. But what's true about a single product or service or industry has never been true about the economy as a whole. Many of the industries in which we now work — health and medicine, finance and insurance, electronics and computing — were tiny or barely existent a century ago. Many of the products that we spend a lot of our money on — air conditioners, sport utility vehicles, computers and mobile devices — were unattainably expensive, or just hadn't been invented a century ago. As automation frees our time, increases the scope of what is possible, we invent new products, new ideas, new services that command our attention, occupy our time and spur consumption. You may think some of these things are frivolous — extreme yoga, adventure tourism, Pokémon GO — and I might agree with you. But people desire these things, and they're willing to work hard for them. The average worker in 2015 wanting to attain the average living standard in 1915 could do so by working just 17 weeks a year, one third of the time. But most people don't choose to do that. They are willing to work hard to harvest the technological bounty that is available to them. Material abundance has never eliminated perceived scarcity. In the words of economist Thorstein Veblen, invention is the mother of necessity.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
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collocation |
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saudi arabia |
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employment growth |
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high school |
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automated teller |
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united states |
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inconsistent human |
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labor market |
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machines increasingly |
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space shuttle |
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shuttle challenger |
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technology magnifies |
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work hard |
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typically ranked |
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economic mobility |
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encouraging news |
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ngrams of length 3
collocation |
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space shuttle challenger |
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Important Words
- abundance
- adventure
- agree
- air
- amazing
- attain
- attention
- automation
- average
- barely
- bounty
- century
- choose
- command
- computers
- computing
- conditioners
- consumption
- couple
- desire
- devices
- economist
- economy
- electronics
- eliminate
- eliminated
- existent
- expensive
- extreme
- farmers
- farming
- feed
- finance
- frees
- frivolous
- growth
- hard
- harvest
- health
- ideas
- increases
- industries
- industry
- insurance
- invent
- invented
- invention
- jobs
- left
- living
- lot
- material
- means
- medicine
- million
- mobile
- money
- mother
- nation
- necessity
- occupy
- people
- perceived
- pokémon
- product
- productivity
- products
- progress
- scarcity
- scope
- service
- services
- single
- spend
- sport
- spur
- standard
- technological
- technology
- thorstein
- time
- tiny
- tourism
- true
- unattainably
- utility
- veblen
- vehicles
- wanting
- weeks
- words
- work
- worker
- working
- year
- yoga