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

  1. bounty
  2. million
  3. frivolous
  4. weeks
  5. mother
  6. thorstein
  7. mobile
  8. people
  9. farmers
  10. utility
  11. living
  12. working
  13. sport
  14. products
  15. century
  16. tourism
  17. 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

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
saudi arabia 3
employment growth 3
high school 3
automated teller 2
united states 2
inconsistent human 2
labor market 2
machines increasingly 2
space shuttle 2
shuttle challenger 2
technology magnifies 2
work hard 2
typically ranked 2
economic mobility 2
encouraging news 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
space shuttle challenger 2

Important Words

  1. abundance
  2. adventure
  3. agree
  4. air
  5. amazing
  6. attain
  7. attention
  8. automation
  9. average
  10. barely
  11. bounty
  12. century
  13. choose
  14. command
  15. computers
  16. computing
  17. conditioners
  18. consumption
  19. couple
  20. desire
  21. devices
  22. economist
  23. economy
  24. electronics
  25. eliminate
  26. eliminated
  27. existent
  28. expensive
  29. extreme
  30. farmers
  31. farming
  32. feed
  33. finance
  34. frees
  35. frivolous
  36. growth
  37. hard
  38. harvest
  39. health
  40. ideas
  41. increases
  42. industries
  43. industry
  44. insurance
  45. invent
  46. invented
  47. invention
  48. jobs
  49. left
  50. living
  51. lot
  52. material
  53. means
  54. medicine
  55. million
  56. mobile
  57. money
  58. mother
  59. nation
  60. necessity
  61. occupy
  62. people
  63. perceived
  64. pokémon
  65. product
  66. productivity
  67. products
  68. progress
  69. scarcity
  70. scope
  71. service
  72. services
  73. single
  74. spend
  75. sport
  76. spur
  77. standard
  78. technological
  79. technology
  80. thorstein
  81. time
  82. tiny
  83. tourism
  84. true
  85. unattainably
  86. utility
  87. veblen
  88. vehicles
  89. wanting
  90. weeks
  91. words
  92. work
  93. worker
  94. working
  95. year
  96. yoga