The Benefits: Labor Gains

Abstract

New jobs created by innovative dynamism tend to be better jobs than old jobs destroyed. The new jobs are usually safer, cleaner, less routine, more creative, and more satisfying. Most factory jobs in the Industrial Revolution were steps up for those who had been scraping by in rural poverty. The replacement of the steam engine by the electric engine in factories made factories safer, cleaner, and better lit. From the late 1800s through the early 2000s, new jobs tended to involve less manual labor, less routine, more creativity, and more analysis. The trend accelerated with the flourishing of computers and the Internet in the 1990s and early 2000s. Innovative dynamism allows workers to choose jobs pursuing big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs) and the control, challenge, and satisfaction of being their own boss as free-agent entrepreneurs. We all benefit from allowing the choice of intense jobs, rather than mandating work–life balance.