Professor Krugman writes today in Degrees and Dollars that "the idea that modern technology eliminates only menial jobs, that well-educated workers are clear winners, may dominate popular discussion, but it’s actually decades out of date."
He is absolutely right and there is the rub. In my diary on New Technology and Education I referred to the New York Times article Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software as evidence that software can be used to assist teachers with grading.
Getting a law degree is no trivial feat. First is four years getting a bachelors degree followed by more school to get a law degree. After all that education to be replaced by software is nothing short of amazing. The truth as Krugman writes is that
The fact is that since 1990 or so the U.S. job market has been characterized not by a general rise in the demand for skill, but by “hollowing out”: both high-wage and low-wage employment have grown rapidly, but medium-wage jobs — the kinds of jobs we count on to support a strong middle class — have lagged behind. And the hole in the middle has been getting wider: many of the high-wage occupations that grew rapidly in the 1990s have seen much slower growth recently, even as growth in low-wage employment has accelerated.
I slightly disagree with Krugman on one minor point. I believe software can easily replace the "high" wage jobs too. But then many of the high wage job earners are corrupt, but writing software that is just as corrupt should be easy.
If education does not enable people to get better jobs, then why get an education. Of course an educated populace might think. Hence republicans do not want anyone to become educated.
The bottom line is we must adapt to a changing world.