Obama Blames Job Loss on Technology, Internet and Efficiency

by: warner todd huston | published: 08 19, 2011

During his Midwest Misery Tour, President Obama was back to blaming technology, the Internet, and ATMs again for America's job loss.

At a stop in Atkinson, Illinois Obama spoke about the need for education at an agricultural company named Wyffels Hybrids, Inc. He said that America is no longer a place where you can just "work hard" and find a good job doing so. Those days are gone he told his audience.

Obama lamented that bank tellers and travel agents have been replaced by automation. This is, apparently, why we have high unemployment.

Excerpt

One of the challenges in terms of rebuilding our economy is – businesses have gotten so efficient, that -- when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller? Instead of using an ATM. Or, used a travel agent instead of going online. A lot of jobs out that that used to require people now have become automated.

The president has in the past made this same claim that we have high unemployment because of "automation" and technology. Back in June Obama used this line on the Today Show.

President Obama explained to NBC News that the reason companies aren’t hiring are not because of his policies, it’s because the economy is so automated. . . . “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate. So all these things have created changes. . . .”

So, in the land that invented modernity, the land of entrepreneurship, the land of high tech, Obama is blaming progress for job loss. In a land where Apple Computer is one of the biggest, most profitable companies in the nation, Obama thinks technology is to blame for all our economic ills.

Imagine that.

Next he’ll blame George W. Bush for inventing ATMs.

But the truth is, the continued jobs loss -- the so-called "jobless recovery" that hasn't been a recovery -- has precisely zero to do with technology, ATMs or the Internet eliminating jobs. For hundreds of years America has gone through waves of jobs being eliminated by progress. How many buggy whip manufacturers are still around? No, the reason we are not creating jobs is that Obama has scared jobs-makers so much with his out-of-control regulatory regime that they are afraid to expand and create new jobs. His ability to quash their business with heavy-handed regulations hangs like the Sword of Damocles above them causing the business sector to sit pat waiting to see what damaging new tax or regulatory scheme Obama next floats to dampen their profit margin.

Let's face it, Obama should love ATMs. After all, he thinks the U.S. business sector is his own personal ATM from which he can draw at will and without ever putting anything into. It's free money that will never end as far as The One is concerned.

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