Liberals Attacking Technology Again
The Flash Boys vs. the Market Machines
Liberals like Michael Lewis are attacking technology again. This time it's high frequency trading. HFT has more positives than negatives in terms of lower costs for retail investors. HFT simply means trades occurring at a high frequency. There is nothing inherently malicious about that.
A couple weeks ago a famous liberal economist, Robert Shiller, wrote Our Amazing Gadgets Are Awakening Fears And Fueling Dread Across The Economy
The left tries to portray republicans as backwards, knuckle-dragging troglodytes..not true! Luddism is a leftist tradition. From Wikipedia:
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.
Neo-Luddites also fear the future unknown effects that new technologies might unleash. The modern Neo-Luddite movement has connections with the anti-globalization movement, anarcho-primitivism, socialism, environmentalism, communism, leftism, Marxism and Deep Ecology.
Sound familiar? Instead of textile mills they are attacking ATMs, oursourcing, Facebook, etc. These are the libs that fear high frequency trading, financial instruments, Wall St., the fed, and the 1%. From wikipedia:
"Neo-Luddites are not anti-technology:" Glendinning proposes that Neo-Luddites are only against specific kinds of technology which are destructive to communities or are materialistic and rationalistic.
The libs reject technology if it may displace unproductive, overpaid jobs – just like they only support the science that agrees with their unmovable, preexisting beliefs, such as IQ being environmental than congenital or that genes don't play a role in the outcome of life (with the exception of sexuality).
But then again, not all liberals are like this- just the far-left ones on sites like New York Times, Huffingtonpost, Businessinsider, The Atlantic, Motherjones, and Zerohedge. Neoliberals, libertarians, and utilitarians, and pragmatists such as David Tepper, Thomas Friedman, or Larry Summers are optimistic about technology and its benefits, like more productivity, higher standard of living, and financial efficiency.
In their war on technology, the left will sometimes resort to Sabotage:
Sabotage…derives from the Netherlands in the 15th century when workers would throw their sabots (wooden shoes) into the wooden gears of the textile looms to break the cogs, fearing the automated machines would render the human workers obsolete.[1]
Luddites and radical labor unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) have advocated sabotage as a means of self-defense and direct action against unfair working conditions.
Instead shoes, their weapon against the rich is regulation, higher taxes and higher interest rates.
Published April 5, 2014 By smartistone
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