If you can get past how ridiculous this sounds, you just have to laugh. Illinois representative Jesse Jackson Jr. says that the iPad is killing jobs in America. Of course, while he railed about the iPad (and I assume other devices/computing in general) destroying the traditional publishing world, he then went on to talk about how the iPad was produced in China and how it’s killing jobs locally as well.
So should we stop producing iPads in China or stop producing them period? The ball is in your court Rep. Jackson. You may notice that while he seemed incensed at this ‘great injustice’, he didn’t actually put forward any solutions. Watch the video:
By the way, to cap this off with a perfect example of political hypocrisy, he did buy an iPad himself and proposed just last month that every student have an iPad saying that they’re “revolutionizing the country”. Hmm. So which is it Representative?
I don’t think I even need to mention a single instance from history of advances in technology obsoleting old industries while creating new ones. Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.
I think it’s time for Mr Jackson to get some new advisors on his staff that might steer him away from such Luddite-infused nonsense, not to mention preventing him from severely contradicting himself.