---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Venkatraman Anantha Nageswaran
Date: Tue, Mar 3, 2020 at 12:46 PM
Subject: anantha in Mint today: 'We should pause before placing high technology on a pedestal'
To: Indic Economic Network - Indic Academy <indiceconomicnetwork@googlegroups.com>
From: Venkatraman Anantha Nageswaran
Date: Tue, Mar 3, 2020 at 12:46 PM
Subject: anantha in Mint today: 'We should pause before placing high technology on a pedestal'
To: Indic Economic Network - Indic Academy <indiceconomicnetwork@googlegroups.com>
https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/we-should-pause-before-placing-high-technology-on-a-pedestal-11583163830960.html
We should pause before placing high technology on a pedestal
4 min read . Updated: 02 Mar 2020, 09:22 PM IST
V. Anantha Nageswaran
The blind adoption of automation has wide-ranging effects that are not always well understood
Technology and capital-intensive models of growth evolved in the West in the context of the Great Plague that raised the relative price of labour. Apart from the social consequences that it spawned—the entry of women to the workforce, delayed age of marriage, fewer children as also women doing work that was considered the preserve of men—it necessitated technology and capital-intensive models of development. It also enhanced military power and, hence, the offensive capabilities of sea-faring nations. Their curiosity and spirit of exploration, aided by technology, enabled them to conquer and colonize nations of the East and the South. The result was not just a capture of resources, but also of minds. That continues to this day, and developing nations seem unable to develop their own models of economic development or convergence, although they usually denounce imperial dominance.
For all its vaunted advantages, technology, like many things in life, is only a mixed blessing. Ask the Amish. They carefully evaluate each technology for its impact on their culture before embracing it. Jameson Wetmore, who has studied the Amish closely, says that we have redesigned the world to be safer for automobiles than for children (The Amish Understand A Life-Changing Truth About Technology The Rest Of Us Don't, Quartz, 29 May 2018). Likewise, some recent technological innovations have revealed their harmful effects on individuals and societies. Forget about the elite discourse on the rise of nationalism, populism and extreme ideologies. The truth is more nuanced. The real consequence of technology is that it has provided a platform for humans to parade their cognitive and behavioural limitations.
Take the case of WhatsApp messages that substitute for facts. We produce and consume them prodigiously. Much of what we think is information is actually noise and largely useless. WhatsApp messages heighten our fears and elevate our anxieties. Besides maintaining good health and practising good hygiene and undertaking basic precautions, most of us cannot do much about Covid-19. If anything, we reduce our immunity through anxiety and make ourselves more vulnerable to being infected. Yet, by consuming and spreading all that is written about the virus, we delude ourselves into thinking we are better prepared to combat it.
Technology also provides a self-destructive and socially useless means to alleviate boredom. Financial Times carried an article titled, Money, Trolls, Timewasting: The Impact Of Social Media On Work' (16 December 2019). One high-profile social media user talked about how it became a pressure and stress factor to be constantly on social media. She quit. Further, an article (Productivity Hacks To love Or Loathe, 13 February 2020), carried in the same newspaper as part of a special report on the future of the workplace, dealt with the productivity tools that experts were using to beat procrastination and distraction caused by ...er... technology. It is circular logic to rely on technological tools to alleviate the harm done by technology. The dependency and addiction shift. They do not vanish.
At a personal level, the answers are as obvious as they are difficult to follow on a sustained basis because we are creatures of habit. It requires another habit to break down an old one, and pursuits take time and persistence before they become habits. In short, effort and discipline are required and technology has no recipe for them.
The macro implications are two-fold. First, consider the stock market valuations commanded by technology stocks. These are unjustified on conventional valuation metrics. Are they justified on the social welfare impact they create? Is there a proper measurement of it? Is it possible at all? Forget about the use and abuse of the internet, what about the income and wealth inequality they create and the tax evasion and other deceptions that so many tech firms and their executives practise? There is an excellent blog post by Brad Setser on the rise in American trade deficit caused by imports into the US from tax-havens ("Tax games: big pharma vs. big tech", 12 February 2020).
Governments of labour-rich countries incentivize capital because they are capital-deficient, but there are limits. They need to reconsider the deductibility of interest payments. They need to resist the entreaties of the capitalists' gallery that demands abolition of taxes on capital gains. If anything, the horizon to qualify for lower taxes needs to be lengthened. The government needs to abolish payroll taxes or lower them or exempt them for a few years, like exemptions from tax on profits made by start-ups. It is especially critical for small and medium enterprises. Technology is at best an imperfect tool, and at worst, a dangerous one. There is no need to place it on a pedestal.
V. Anantha Nageswaran is member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and the co-author of 'The Rise Of Finance' and 'Can India Grow?' These are the author's personal views
We should pause before placing high technology on a pedestal
4 min read . Updated: 02 Mar 2020, 09:22 PM IST
V. Anantha Nageswaran
The blind adoption of automation has wide-ranging effects that are not always well understood
Technology and capital-intensive models of growth evolved in the West in the context of the Great Plague that raised the relative price of labour. Apart from the social consequences that it spawned—the entry of women to the workforce, delayed age of marriage, fewer children as also women doing work that was considered the preserve of men—it necessitated technology and capital-intensive models of development. It also enhanced military power and, hence, the offensive capabilities of sea-faring nations. Their curiosity and spirit of exploration, aided by technology, enabled them to conquer and colonize nations of the East and the South. The result was not just a capture of resources, but also of minds. That continues to this day, and developing nations seem unable to develop their own models of economic development or convergence, although they usually denounce imperial dominance.
For all its vaunted advantages, technology, like many things in life, is only a mixed blessing. Ask the Amish. They carefully evaluate each technology for its impact on their culture before embracing it. Jameson Wetmore, who has studied the Amish closely, says that we have redesigned the world to be safer for automobiles than for children (The Amish Understand A Life-Changing Truth About Technology The Rest Of Us Don't, Quartz, 29 May 2018). Likewise, some recent technological innovations have revealed their harmful effects on individuals and societies. Forget about the elite discourse on the rise of nationalism, populism and extreme ideologies. The truth is more nuanced. The real consequence of technology is that it has provided a platform for humans to parade their cognitive and behavioural limitations.
Take the case of WhatsApp messages that substitute for facts. We produce and consume them prodigiously. Much of what we think is information is actually noise and largely useless. WhatsApp messages heighten our fears and elevate our anxieties. Besides maintaining good health and practising good hygiene and undertaking basic precautions, most of us cannot do much about Covid-19. If anything, we reduce our immunity through anxiety and make ourselves more vulnerable to being infected. Yet, by consuming and spreading all that is written about the virus, we delude ourselves into thinking we are better prepared to combat it.
Technology also provides a self-destructive and socially useless means to alleviate boredom. Financial Times carried an article titled, Money, Trolls, Timewasting: The Impact Of Social Media On Work' (16 December 2019). One high-profile social media user talked about how it became a pressure and stress factor to be constantly on social media. She quit. Further, an article (Productivity Hacks To love Or Loathe, 13 February 2020), carried in the same newspaper as part of a special report on the future of the workplace, dealt with the productivity tools that experts were using to beat procrastination and distraction caused by ...er... technology. It is circular logic to rely on technological tools to alleviate the harm done by technology. The dependency and addiction shift. They do not vanish.
At a personal level, the answers are as obvious as they are difficult to follow on a sustained basis because we are creatures of habit. It requires another habit to break down an old one, and pursuits take time and persistence before they become habits. In short, effort and discipline are required and technology has no recipe for them.
The macro implications are two-fold. First, consider the stock market valuations commanded by technology stocks. These are unjustified on conventional valuation metrics. Are they justified on the social welfare impact they create? Is there a proper measurement of it? Is it possible at all? Forget about the use and abuse of the internet, what about the income and wealth inequality they create and the tax evasion and other deceptions that so many tech firms and their executives practise? There is an excellent blog post by Brad Setser on the rise in American trade deficit caused by imports into the US from tax-havens ("Tax games: big pharma vs. big tech", 12 February 2020).
Governments of labour-rich countries incentivize capital because they are capital-deficient, but there are limits. They need to reconsider the deductibility of interest payments. They need to resist the entreaties of the capitalists' gallery that demands abolition of taxes on capital gains. If anything, the horizon to qualify for lower taxes needs to be lengthened. The government needs to abolish payroll taxes or lower them or exempt them for a few years, like exemptions from tax on profits made by start-ups. It is especially critical for small and medium enterprises. Technology is at best an imperfect tool, and at worst, a dangerous one. There is no need to place it on a pedestal.
V. Anantha Nageswaran is member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and the co-author of 'The Rise Of Finance' and 'Can India Grow?' These are the author's personal views
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
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