"The Luddites were 19th-century
English textile artisans who protested against newly developed labour-saving machinery from 1811 to 1817. The
stocking frames,
spinning frames and
power looms introduced during the
Industrial Revolution threatened to replace the artisans with less-skilled, low-wage labourers, leaving them without work." Per Wikipedia.
versus Dilberts version of Engineer:
I just experienced this ongoing dilemma with a dry wall finisher. I was asking about some of the technology breakthroughs. He would describe them and I would ask about the downsides (too heavy? lower quality finish?) but he kept coming back to it eliminated jobs.
The dilemma going back to 1811 and maybe even earlier is that as innovation occurs, some people's livelihood is displaced.
In Chris Anderson's book MAKERS, he quotes the CEO of Etsy, ..the rise of small business leads to opportunities for us to measure success in new ways...(my paraphrase)
