Yes, we should keep at least one eye on Joe Smith. He has been thrown out of a job by the new machine. Perhaps he can soon get another job, even a better one. But perhaps, also, he has devoted many years of his life to acquiring and improving a special skill for which the market no longer has any use. He has lost this investment in himself, in his old skill, just as his former employer, perhaps, has lost his investment in old machines or processes suddenly rendered obsolete. He was a skilled workman, and paid as a skilled workman. Now he has become overnight an unskilled workman again, and can
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Contrary to the way that it works in the real world. This can either happen because of regulation or disruptive technologies. In the case of disruptive technologies, the new technology provides new means for wealth building, whereas regulation helps no one and everyone suffers. The coal industry comes to mind - if there was a disruptive technology that was head and shoulders better than coal, i.e. natural gas. Those who are in the coal industry suffer, but the population, by and large are provided with a better/cheaper/cleaner energy source. However, if the market doesn't say that coal is cheaper and there is still some demand for it...then regulating coal away harms everyone since we are removing an alternative (albeit dirtier) form of energy from the market.
