An article weighing the pros and cons of raising the U.S. minimum wage draws on the perspective of SFI External Professor W. Brian Arthur on technological innovation and the economy.
"But what if technology throws some people out of work not temporarily, but permanently?" asks Bloomberg's Peter Coy and Susan Berfield. "What if many service positions follow manufacturing jobs into obsolescence? (There’s already a hamburger-making robot for sale.) If that happens, society will have to develop new ways to share its abundance with people whose services are no longer needed, speculates Brian Arthur, a nonresident professor at the Santa Fe Institute."
Read the article in Bloomberg Businessweek (November 27, 2013)
Hear Arthur's interview on the Santa Fe Radio Cafe (48 minutes, September 16, 2013)
Read Arthur's article in McKinsey Quarterly (October 2011)