Jesse Jackson, the younger, has had a rant at the iPad which he claims is responsible for killing US jobs.
Jackson said that he bought into the Jobs' Mob dream and spent cash on an iPad. But he was horrified to discover that book shops like Borders and Barnes & Noble were closing down as a result of countless people doing the same thing.
He pointed out that Chicago State University were not being given textbooks any longer. They are all being given iPads as they enter school.
Jackson feared for the future of publishing companies and publishing company jobs - and what becomes of bookstores and librarians and all of the jobs associated with paper.
Jackson said that Steve Jobs is doing pretty well. He's created the iPad and while this has made life more efficient for Americans, the gizmo was produced in China.
It was the Chinese who get to take advantage of that First Amendment value to provide freedom of speech through the iPad to the American people, he said.
However there was no protection for American jobs to make sure that US people were being put to work.
He didn't mention the Kindle or ebook readers which were also made overseas, but we guess that since he bought an iPad he has also been wired into Apple to think it is the only device out there.
Such comments of course have bought the attacks from the tame Apple press who claim that Jobs Mob hires a lot of "smart people" to" design, develop and engineer the products".
However they would have been better off pointing out that the book market will change, just like the movie and music industry had to change, and rather than trying to hang onto "old jobs" the US would be better off making sure that people could get new ones.
Blaming the iPad specifically is not appropriate, however, conomists fail to realize the extent to which advancing technology and globalization are contributing to unemployment. While we all wait for the economy and job market to recover, businesses are going to continue to automate and offshore jobs as they continue to cut costs. Recent corporate profits are all coming from cost cutting...not new revenue.
For a great overview of this, see this book:
"The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1448659817
A free PDF is also available here: http://www.thelightsinthetunnel.com
Also see the author's blog at http://econfuture.wordpress.com.
I think the issues raised in this book are among the most important that we will have to confront as a society. I encourage everyone to read it...
Congress can do something about the tax advantages that the US gives companies to take work abroad. Congress can do something about China's trade and monetary policies that give China an unfair trade advantage. Perhaps Congress should look into the near monopoly in book publishing for text books, which results in very high prices.
But Congress can't stop progress.