ipadIn a sharp turn from his promotion of “an iPad for every schoolchild” on the House floor last month, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. recently claimed that Apple has hurt our economy and cost us valuable jobs with its innovative tablet computer.

Now Borders is closing stores because why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your newspaper, download your book, download your magazine.

And in news from 100 years ago, Henry Ford caused massive unemployment from horse and buggy manufacturing plants when he implemented the assembly line in his automobile factory to crank out Model-Ts. 

Too bad we don’t use real horsepower as our primary mode of transportation anymore. I have extensive knowledge on the subject due to my vast collection of regency romance novels, and every girl worth her salt knows that the best way to seduce a duke is in a carriage.  Minivans have denied too many ladies ascension to royalty.

Seriously though, what good is a job if it doesn’t provide something that people want or need? Once cars came around, people decided that they’d rather deal with oil fumes than equine defecation fumes (that’s fancy-talk for stinky horse poop). Is that so wrong? Did anyone complain about the automobile industry causing Buggies-R-Us to declare bankruptcy? 

Or did they just say, That is such a better way to do things! Yay innovation!

Fact of the matter is that Amazon and its Kindle, Apple and its iPad, Netflix, and many other companies have found a way of providing books, movies, and music in a way that Americans like better than the way Borders did it.

New technology does kill old technology. It’s why we need transferable skills on our resumes. Skills like salesmanship. There is absolutely no reason why the great salesclerks at Borders could not go get a job peddling for another company. Maybe even pitching iPads to potential buyers at an Apple store.

 

Image via meedanphotos/Flickr