IE profession earns a bad name when it focuses on eliminating the need of people in production systems. It creates unemployment and underemployment and social tensions.
It can focus on improving productivity of human resource at every level and thereby increase the earnings of people across the society and do a service to the society. It means at every level, it adjusts the input combination around a person to improve his productivity.
In Germany such an approach is taken in the society in contrast to USA where elimination of manpower has become an obsession.
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/05/why-germany-dominates-the-u-s-in-innovation/
