The president said that “the other thing that happened, though, and this goes to the point you were just making, is there are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM; you don't go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport, and you're using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate. So all these things have created changes in the economy, and what we have to do now -- and that's what this job council is all about -- is identifying where the jobs for the future are going to be; how do we make sure that there's a match between what people are getting trained for and the jobs that exist; how do we make sure that capital is flowing into those places with the greatest opportunity. We are on the right track. The key is figuring out how do we accelerate it.” [...]
That same New York Times story quoted various economists discussing automated machines displacing workers. William C. Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business, for instance, said "We don't have 11 million unemployed farmers today because over time farmers and their children transitioned into different sectors. We don't usually have this kind of shock, though, that displaces a lot of workers at once."
But conservatives are trying to use the president seizing on the example of an ATM machine – hardly new technology -- is to paint the president as unaware of how the economy works.
A poster the Neo-Luddites can appreciate.
