FACT CHECK: Do Robots Or Trade Threaten American Workers More?

Source: Danielle Kurtzleben
Affiliation: NPR

This article fact checks claims made by Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang in a 2019 Democratic presidential debate regarding if automation or bad trade policy is the primary driver of a loss of American jobs. While Warren argued that bad trade policy is responsible for the loss of many jobs while Yang claimed automation was responsible, the truth is that trade and automation aren’t entirely separable phenomena. Both Yang and Warren were right in some sense, and the real takeaway is that it’s easy to oversimplify the effects of both trade and automation on the economy.

Keywords: Automation , Computer Science , Tech Ethics , Tech Industry , Universal Basic Income