I agree with the majority: Feeling sorry for the replaced workers. My opinion is that if I lost my current position, I'd still be valuable to another company that needed my skills - at least for a while. Most technology improvements are slow-moving in the real world giving me the time to "ramp up" on the skills I'd need to be marketable again.

If the Luddites were smart, they wouldn't have whined about being replaced by a machine. They should have become the leading experts in in building and using them or [repairing] the looms so they could charge their ex-employers a fortune to fix them. <grin>

I do have to say something about the comments on [what amounts to be] company loyalty. In the distant past, you worked for one company for your entire career. You were loyal to them and they were loyal to you. That has gone the way of the dinosaur. While I feel sorry for the worker, it's not my responsibility to give them the training they need to stay employed, that's the [company's] responsibility. (Feel free to laugh, roll eyes or at least show an involuntary sarcastic smirk). So what happens? "We don't need you any more. You're fired." The reality is loyalty on both sides of the paycheck are gone. I can leave (and have) for greener pastures while they can replace me with a typewriter and a chimp if it makes the bottom line better. (Some have claimed there's already no difference, which might explain my typewriter... <LOL>)

IMHO, there's two types of "replacement" technology: the kind that allows a worker to produce more efficiently, and the kind that replaces the worker. With an advance in production technology, that same worker is still doing the job but cranking out exponentially more "widgets". The other kind I'll compare a before and after: consider sorting envelopes at the post office. A crowd of workers visually sorting a mountain of envelopes vs. a scanner and conveyor system. Did it replace the workers? Yes, but it was to keep the PO operating. Imagine it taking three or four weeks to deliver an envelope.

<whew> Sorry for the long rant, typed in like 30 seconds. Too much coffee this morning, and my typewriter's jammed.