From Veljko Armano Linta, Zagreb, Croatia
You report a study finding that robots won't be taking our jobs (21 July, p 5). In our societies, where individual welfare is largely determined by having a job, the displacement of human jobs is an important issue.
But the increased spending that is supposed to follow might not be a cause for celebration. Will it have a large ecological footprint and be for the monetary benefit of a few? Or will it fit within the safe space for planetary ecology, and be for the benefit of entire communities, even if that means what some call “degrowth“? Jobs are not always a measure of collective progress and well-being. They can be a measure of destruction and misery.
