Running Out of Steam

Heron of Greece invented steam power in 50 BC. But the leaders of the day thought that it would cause unemployment which may lead to unrest and the invention, well, ran out of steam. There were many such untimely inventions.

What inventions today cause unemployment? Should we get rid of technology?

There are so many inventions that cause unemployment nowadays, so many that it's hard to come up with even 5.

However, there are some obvious inventions that might have 'practicalized' our daily lives but they have taken away jobs at the same time.

In some airports, they are now beginning to have self check-in counters. This is quite a problem. Yes, it might go faster, but if you think about it, this takes away a lot of jobs! Also, is there a small possibility that this is decreasing security? Now that the passengers are in charge of this.

Also, at supermarkets, they have super speed self managing cashiers. This takes away the jobs of the cashier people.

Another inventions would be surveillance cameras. This takes away many security positions.

Online websites that allow you to free-stream any movies, shows, music, news reports etc. This takes away the jobs of the people that sell these CD's/DVD's for a living. But also consequences the actors, singers etc. as they don't get paid for their work this way.

Lastly, e-mail. This invention has decreased the demand for (snail)mail services tremendously. E-mail is faster, and allows you to stay at home - you don't have to get up and bring your mail to a mailbox. But this takes away they jobs of the people collecting the mail, then preparing it before it get's shipped off, then the people that are in charge of the transportation and again the delivery people! All in one simple and seemingly amazing invention.

All these inventions have pros yes, but they also have more cons that just this problem of unemployment. If we start to reply on machines this much it could become a huge problem in cases of failure, power cuts for example. However, this does not at all mean we should get rid of technology. I do think that we should start to be able to control our money situation. WE should stop cheating and start paying what the things are actually worth and make sure the money get's to the people that deserve it.