The Technology Trap: Fear of Changing the Status Quo
Carl Benedikt Frey defines the technology trap as a recurring political mechanism: when progress ceases to raise incomes for the majority, society gains the motivation to block it. This is not a dispute over machines, but over the distribution of costs between old and new employment structures. This article analyzes why, without the fair distribution of the fruits of growth, innovation becomes a flashpoint for systemic conflict. Readers will learn how historical lessons, such as Engels' Pause, help us understand today's challenges related to artificial intelligence.
Enabling vs. Replacing Technologies: The Worker's Fate
The key to understanding the impact of innovation is the distinction between enabling technologies, which boost human productivity, and replacing technologies, which render acquired skills obsolete. This distinction determines the legitimacy of the economic order. According to Amara's Law, we tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the short run, leading to rapid disillusionment when costs appear before benefits.
History shows that progress does not always serve the common good. Engels' Pause in 19th-century Britain was a period when output grew by 46%, while real wages rose by only 12%. This decoupling of productivity and wages fuels populism. It was not until