By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-04-21 04:02:54 | Word Count: 664
Last week Democratic United States Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. made comments about the national unemployment rate. In his passionate speech, Congressman Jackson berates the iPad while simultaneously reminding the House that he owns one. He begins by mentioning that the 112th Congress has done very little to address the unemployment rate. Mr. Jackson then proceeds to refresh the memory of everyone listening by telling them that just a few weeks before he had purchased an iPad and was raving about it. He raved so much so that he claimed that the iPad would “revolutionize the country.” He believed that the iPad would do so much for education. Fast forward to last Friday when he totally changes his tune on the subject of the iPad.
Now Mr. Jackson believes that the iPad has contributed to the lack of new jobs in this country. Now the iPad is the reason that American jobs have been lost and are never to return. The iPad, in his opinion has led to the demise of traditional bookstores like Borders and Barnes and Noble. These stores are traditional in that they primarily sell books and magazines that are in paper form. With the iPad, people don™t have to read paper books but can download electronic versions. By eliminating paper based books, Mr. Jackson believes that the unemployment rate will only increase as the jobs surrounding paper books and newspapers are eliminated.
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He goes further to mention that iPads are being distributed to college students in his home state of Chicago and elsewhere across the country. Colleges are actively trying to do away with paper textbooks to eventually create a paperless environment. He also mentions the fact that the iPad is made in China as opposed to in America, where American workers are. Realistically, the iPad is made in several different countries, based on each component. Mr. Jackson talks about the production of the iPad in regards to outsourcing and the globalization of the workforce.
I understand where Mr. Jackson is coming form but his thought process is a little bit undeveloped. How can he stand before Congress one week praising the iPad and then criticize it the next. Beyond the hypocrisy, his argument just isn™t practical. You can™t stop technology just to keep jobs around. If people halted technology just to maintain employment we would have no cars all because we wanted to keep horse and carriage workers employed.
All of the innovations that have come throughout the development of the human race have put someone out of work. That is just the way that it seems to go. If the cotton gin wasn™t invented, this could have kept slavery going for a lot longer than it was allowed to be legal. Factories that assembled cars and cut meat eliminated many workers and skilled laborers so that products could be produced rapidly. The internet has all but demolished the number of travel agents. This is the very nature of the capitalistic society in which we live. Big business has their interest in become more efficient, and if that means losing workers, then so be it.
We need to educate the workforce so that new jobs and industries can thrive. People need to be trained and educated to keep up with new technology and emerging industries. I do believe that the American workforce should be a part of new technology. While many jobs have been created to support the iPad, I am pretty sure that just as many jobs will disappear because of it. It is a part of a cycle that helps some and hurts others. Until there is more regulation to keep and develop new jobs at home, this is how it will always be.
