In software, in society as a whole, productivity increases wealth. People who try to maintain jobs by keeping things inefficient are in the long run hurting themselves, and others.
To explain: In colonial times, over 90% of labor in the colonies was involved in food production. Now it's down to around 5%. All that 'excess' labor is now directed to other productivity. Industrialization and automation effectively made us all richer, not poorer.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --