More Robots Taking Jobs (ethic, speech, how much, money)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
jobs being automated is a very good thing people
the extremely insignificant problem that the current human workers are out of that job is nothing compared to the beneficial effect of automated jobs increasing the standard of living in the area for all people..
when all jobs become automated, that means that all systems the economy requires to function becomes more efficient, and then, theoretically, if the machines can upgrade and repair themselves, humans will not have to work any job to sustain themselves, but rather work jobs involved in politics of how to organize human law and the machine economy - such as population control vs the machine output. the rest of the humans would be liberated and free to explore other frontiers such as science, space, or knitting.
there is always more tasks for us to do, and in the future if population control is wisely implemented working at a job we would recognize today would not be required for our survival. if population is allowed to expand unchecked, and the machines cannot output enough to support that population, human jobs will be created to fill the gap the machines lack, and so people will always be employed, just not with the same jobs. it's still an equal playing field, it just means that the environment is changing and we have to adapt. some things, like cost of food, has gone down dramatically, it's just that the population rise has given a negative effect to the cost of food also. if you can imagine back in 1980 if the population was the same, but we had the same automated processes in agriculture, there would be an immense surplus.
the only rational fear you should have is that population growth will exceed the rate of economical automation - that creates poverty.
in this respect, if job automation progress was to halt as of today, these workers would keep their jobs, but in a few short years population growth would vastly create more poverty since more people need to be fed and sustained and outdated humans are working at the same efficiency without technological advancement.
this thread is the perfect example of how the laymans outrage and concern is misplaced, whining about the solution and overlooking the real problem - no laws on population growth.
most people tend to pass it off as everybody has a right to reproduce. unfortunately the size of our planet and its resources are finite, and allowing unchecked population would not only be a sure path to doom, it would create more unnecessary poverty and suffering than all the wars and famine in history.
If every person who watches 4 hours of TV/day only watched 2 hours/day and read about personal finance and computer engineering 2 hours/day, the American society would be transformed dramatically.
Probably not as much as you'd think. We don't need that many IT workers. It's still a niche industry compared to the overall number of workers in the US. Any gap in that workforce would be quickly filled, and then all the other newly-knowledgeable folks would be unable to get work, and would presumably be told to "retrain" yet again, for something else.
What is the size of the "shortage," though? As automation increases, even jobs that require extensive training and skills will be automated at least in part, creating less of a need for human employees.
I really doubt that the number of workers we'd be "short" by would be as large as the number of "surplus" workers we are adding each year.
Which is to say, if everyone retrained to become "skilled" workers, many of them would remain unable to find jobs, because there simply isn't a large-enough pool of positions that will be created by the private sector.
If they trained, they would be more employable than to not train. Even unskilled jobs will ramp up requirements. Many factory workers today are using computers to assist them, or monitoring them. It will never be 1940 again, when a 8th grade education and 4 limbs were enough.
Well, the danger is that even a lot of training won't be enough. The reduced number of jobs that remain will be handed out increasingly based on personal/familial connections. That's how things often work in third-world nations with a limited number of formal salaried jobs available.
If training for an uncertain job means having to take on debt that can't even be discharged in bankruptcy, it might well be a bad idea, even if it is your only shot at a "real" job. Like they say, don't wager what you can't cover.
What is Your alternative, tablemtn, perhaps move to China to do manual labor for dimes per hour?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.