On the September 14 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews admitted to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that it "sounds Marxist" but he truly believes that automation in the economy has killed jobs by replacing human clerks in CVS and camera operators at MSNBC with "robots" [video follows page break; click here for MP3 audio]:
I don't want to skip to your left on this but.... [W]hen I see automation, when I go to a CVS that used to employ a lot of people just above the poverty level, above the minimum wage. And you walk in there now, it's all machines. Now it's very convenient for the customer, it's all machines. There's a check-out machine, by the way, that talks to you and says 'Don't forget to put your CVS card in."
And by the way, I used to have about seven or eight cameramen. I don't have them anymore. It's all automated, it's all robots.
Everywhere we go is robots!
You used to go to a gas station, you'd have somebody would check your tires, check your oil. There ain't anybody there, there's nobody working at a gas station!
What would Matthews have us do, turn back the clock to the 1950s or '60s? What's more, this is the same guy who bashes Republicans as being "anti-science" and who blasted Republican presidential candidates in a tweet at last week's Reagan Library debate as "ludites" [sic]:
Good for Huntsman, standing up for science and against the ludites. #reagandebate
Chris obviously meant Luddite, but perhaps he's just anti-spelling, not to mention irony-deficient. Here's a dictionary.com definition of the term Luddite:
one of a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly : one who is opposed to especially technological change
Sounds a lot like Matthews.
Although, who knows, maybe the "Hardball" host will be willing to go to his bosses at MSNBC and offer to take a pay cut so that the network can hire back some non-robot cameramen for his show.
FLASHBACK: In August, Matthews groused about "robots" helping to bring about the demise of the U.S. House of Representatives page program.
