Technology Has Created More Jobs Than It Destroyed Over the Last 140 Years

Over the last 140 years, technological progress has meant more work for everyone.

That's the conclusion of a new report from consulting firm Deloitte. The glowing analysis, which looked at historical UK census data, confirms what we already knew about the consequences of automation: a general shift from hard labour to more knowledge-based occupations has occurred. The researchers thus conclude that technology is a "great job-creating machine."

Sounds pretty great, right? The problem is, however, that technology was supposed to help us to work less, not more. From Walter Kronkite's 60s tour through a mock future-home, in which he predicts that a 30 hour work week will one day be the norm, to Karl Marx's writings about machines, technology has always held the promise of less toil.

Now, faced with the same anxieties about job stealing robots as the machine-breaking Luddites—who, by the way, you probably have all wrong—reports that happily proclaim machines mean more work instead of less have become a comfort.

Instead of seeing machines as a tool to be corralled, we see them as either a total threat or a saviour. Either way, they appear to stand completely out of workers' control while in reality remaining firmly within the boss'. If they happen to give us more work, then, it's a mercy, and not a hardship. Welcome to the future, it's a lot like the past.