Some people worry that machines will take jobs away from people, making people permanently unemployed. Only 150 years ago in the United States, most people were farmers. Now, machines do almost all of the farm work and fewer than 2% of Americans are farmers, yet that 2% produces enough food to feed the entire country while still exporting food overseas.
a. What happened to all of those people who used to work on farms? Do you think most adult males in the U.S. are unemployed nowadays, now that the farm work is gone?
b. Some people say that it’s okay for machines to take jobs, because we’ll get jobs fixing the machines. Just from looking around, do you think that most working Americans are earning a living by fixing farm equipment? If not, what do you think most working people are doing instead?