Globally yes, locally no. It is not reasonable to discount the fears of a to-be-displaced factory worker in Michigan because their loss is offset by new service industry jobs in New York, even though the net economic effect may be positive. For real examples, laid-off shipbuilders in Liverpool and coal miners in Wales are still largely out of work even while the UK economy has grown since those mass industrial transitions.<p>Taken to a limit, a sector-wide displacement could have quite severe repercussions for a society. Imagine for example a majority of truck drivers* losing their jobs once self-driving cargo vehicles become available. Assuming they&#x27;ll be adopted rapidly (for their advantages in safety, fleet efficiency, and reduced transit time due to continuous operation) and the change is quite sudden. Those truckers are now an immediate, acute problem for the country: unemployed, not spending, not earning, heavily invested in training and experience for a now non-existent job, and not (in aggregate) well-suited for other work. They are also a large, angry, nationwide group - a pre-fabricated voting block - ripe for political exploitation.<p>*I picked this example based on that map of common occupations that was floating round here a few months ago. By far the most popular job by state was &quot;truck driver&quot;, so this is potentially a real issue.