Rhetorical Summary

Computerization is taking over the job industry! Well maybe not the whole job industry, but the medium-wage job market that support the middle class is shrinking due to computerization. “Degrees and Dollars” a New York Times article written by Princeton professor Paul Krugman, argues that education is not the key to increasing economic success; as more of the mid and high wage jobs that require degrees are able to be done with software, putting some of the middle and upper class out of work effectively lowering the economic success of the country. Krugman makes this argument by employing appeals to ethos and logos, citing reasonable evidence from the Times, economists, and his fellow colleagues at Princeton, as well as using his own credibility …show more content…
He suggests from the article that “Computers, it turns out, can quickly analyze millions of documents, cheaply performing a task that used to require armies of lawyers and paralegals” (Krugman 427). Both lawyers and paralegals are considered highly educated and can easily have their jobs taken by software that is much cheaper and more efficient than them, so this appeal to ethos by Krugman introduces his point that mid and upper wage jobs are being replaced by computers. Krugman then moves on to support his argument by citing the same article pointing out that “Software has also been replacing engineers in such tasks as chip design” (Krugman 427). This furthers his point because like lawyers and paralegals, engineers are highly educated. By the same token, highly educated engineers are seeing a decline in their job market because there is cheaper more efficient software that can do the same job. Krugman then moves on to his next ethos appeal citing economists David Autor, Frank Levy, and Richard Murnane. He takes support for his argument from the economists’ assertion that “computers… excel at routine tasks” and “Therefore, any routine task-- a category that includes many white-collar, nonmanual jobs-- is in the firing line” (Krugman 427). This directly emphasizes his claim, and allows him to point out that jobs that don’t have routine …show more content…
He states that “if we want a society of broadly shared prosperity, education isn't the answer… we need to restore bargaining power that labor has lost over the years, so that ordinary workers as well as superstars have the power to bargain for good wages” (Krugman 427). Coming to this conclusion is completely reasonable insight from Krugman as he has asserted his credibility as an authority on the subject of economics and logically come to this solution as a possible solution to the dwindling middle class due to advances in

Show More