Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Blames iPad For American Unemployment (VIDEO)

On Friday, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) addressed the United States's current unemployment crisis and claimed the iPad was "probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs."

Jackson, himself an iPad owner, expanded on his statement by pointing to the recent bankruptcy of Borders Books.

"Why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes and Noble? Just buy an iPad and download your book, download your newspaper, download your magazine," the Congressman said.

He also cited Chicago State University's initiative to replace textbooks with iPads for freshman students. Jackson stated that the goal of the University was to create a "textbookless campus within four years."

"What becomes of publishing companies and publishing company jobs?" Jackson asked the House. "What becomes of bookstores and librarians and all of the jobs associated with paper? Well, in the not-too-distant future, such jobs simply won't exist."

He also took issue with the device's production overseas: "The iPad is produced in China. It's not produced here in the United States. [...] There is no protection for jobs here in America to ensure that the American people are being put to work."

According to Neowin:

It seems that Jackson has changed his views significantly since last month when he said that the iPad was "revolutionizing" the country" and that it would "fundamentally alter how we will educate our children" followed by making a suggestion that there should be an "iPad for every student in the nation".

Business Insider reponds, "Obviously he ignores all the wealth the iPad has created in America, and the fact that there are all kinds of other jobs that have been created around the iPad [...]"

WATCH: [via Real Clear Politics]

Comments

[XianEcci]

02:05 PM on 04/20/2011

In general, I find it disquieting that so many people have dismissed the issues at hand. This is -- as some have said -- just the latest in a long evolution of labor and lifestyle change; this evolution has certainly removed a greater percentage of people from achieving hand-on jobs within service and manufacturing. One sarcastically noted, “I suppose heavy machinery companies are responsible for huge amounts of unemployment as fewer shovels are produced and fewer construction workers are needed”… But this of course is true, as was the printing press eliminating scribes, as someone else quipped. The fact that the iPad and other current technologies have become so “indepsensible” in many people’s lives does not remove these facts.
While an increase in the demand for ‘innovative, creative, idea’ [and perverse commercial] professions is up, Americans will eventually find that they don’t have a monopoly on those either. Of course, the real issue here is an overpopulated world: to imagine a more balanced and fully employed society, it seems more fruitful to pay mind to reproductive rates, then to imagine that the world economy will go away. To Jackson’s technological point, I would also say that reassessing true value vs. novelty may allow us to curb the trend towards a completely aphysical existence. Following the current course of innovation, we will soon be in an unfamiliar world lacking true commodities; when such change happens so quickly, it becomes impossible to evaluate whether such evolutions are beneficial or detrimental.

[Jalmer van de Berg]

04:13 AM on 04/20/2011

How dare those publishing companies and their fancy new "printing presses" I've heard about destroy the jobs of thousands, if not millions of scribes!

[ThreeCanyons]

07:25 PM on 04/19/2011

What is he thinking?

[Cpt Obvious]

05:09 PM on 04/19/2011

Times are changing my brother. Things cant stay the same forever. Adapt or become obsolete.

[greysells2]

11:50 AM on 04/27/2011

The worms are already out of the can when it comes mobile devices and cloud computing.

[onionboy]

05:06 PM on 04/19/2011

Let's go back to churning butter. Do away with the printing press.

There's a big difference between an economy that doesn't create jobs and a job shift within an economy. If he wants to complain, he should complain that everything in his ipad should be manufactured and assembled in the states.

[Gperky]

05:00 PM on 04/19/2011

Just as smart as his Dad! Duh!

[JonathanDogood]

04:02 PM on 04/19/2011

JacksonProbablyDidNotReceiveApplePACMoneyOrSupportAndConsequentlyDidA180TurnOfOpinion-DoesAnyoneBelieveHeHasFirmBeliefsOrPriniciples??
TheFruitDoesNotFallFarFromTheTree!

[RRrrr]

05:07 AM on 04/21/2011

Must be the new language arts of the future...digitalstreaming. DoNotBlinkAndNoticeNoContractionsNeither!

[Kevin Mapp]

03:57 PM on 04/19/2011

Actually, I get the point he's making. Unfortunately, certain jobs are becoming a thing of the past do to the innovations of modern technology. And a lot of people are feeling that. We've seen it happening for years now. The ipad is not the main cause of the problem, but it does play a part. Shipping jobs overseas doesn't help either. We as a country have to learn how to keep up with the changing trends and find a way to bring jobs back to the US.

[Jeremy Ailes]

02:46 PM on 04/19/2011

Right, so all progress should stop in the name of maintaining jobs for the people who work at books stores?

[John Balash]

02:01 PM on 04/19/2011

Honestly how many jobs do you lose from retail bookstores vs. the actual production of goods like iPads that are done overseas. How about we work on returning industry to America.

[icilisi]

01:41 PM on 04/19/2011

Doofus. The future is here. Music, movies, news, magazines, books all available online without having the wastefulness of a physical product in hand. Oh and I just got my 50lbs of phonebooks delivered to my house this week even though I never asked for them.

[StuartGalley]

11:40 AM on 04/19/2011

This is what happens when unedumacated people vote. We end up with Jesse Jacksons.

[binarystar]

11:16 AM on 04/19/2011

and now it's clear how many people on this site write their comments based solely off reading the headline.

[mfinn]

11:01 AM on 04/19/2011

This is actually pretty amazing. It is really hard to believe that this man has any sort of job, but that he has found enough people to vote him into a public office is really out there. I know 9-year-olds who have more common sense than this.

[bfb8688]

10:49 AM on 04/19/2011

He really, really ought to go to Borders and buy a book about economics.