Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Work and Employment
 [Register]
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.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 06-28-2012, 03:59 PM
 
Location: Metro Detroit, Michigan
29,701 posts, read 24,780,162 times
Reputation: 28386

Advertisements

[quote=Randomdude;24927038]
Quote:
Originally Posted by andywire View Post
Maintenance and installation requires far less manpower than is made obsolete by the machine itself.

Say a dozen people currently do a job manually. That one machine just replaced them, and takes, what, 1 guy to maintain it, who may be maintaining several others just like it simutaneously. It takes, what, a team a couple weeks to a couple months to install it, and thats it.

12 people out of work, replaced by 1 maintenance guy, and installation work for a few installation guys for a few months.
Yes, I've seen both sides of the coin. Those manual skills still serve a purpose. You're not going to automate repair work, and that stuff is not learned overnight or in a classroom. Wait and see... In another decade or two, that type of work is going to be quite the niche. Probably sooner. At the same time, we don't need 20% of the population working to produce things manually. That means we can allocate those resources elsewhere.

Besides, it's been many decades since high efficiency production methods have been intruduced. CNC machines were invented in the 50's, and began to take hold in the 70's. ACME CAM machines, guided by CAM tracers much like an automobile CAM shaft, have been around for over half a century. Nobody was complaining then, even though those machines are even more productive that modern CNC screw machines. At the same time, for small quantity and repair work, there still is some demand for folks with the skillset to make things manually.

Like I said, I think people are seeing the "worst case scenarios". I understand where we are headed. I'm on the side of technology 75% of the time, but I still work with my hands 25% of the time. There is still a demand for both to some extent. One happens to be a much bigger pain in the rear than the other, and probably harder to learn, so many days, I'm thankful for how technology had made my job much less of a headache.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 07-27-2012, 12:13 PM
 
93 posts, read 170,147 times
Reputation: 51
high school diplomas seem to have no meaning anymore
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-27-2012, 12:17 PM
 
Location: NJ
18,665 posts, read 19,934,632 times
Reputation: 7314
Quote:
Originally Posted by IH8HumanResources View Post
high school diplomas seem to have no meaning anymore
Why would they? We're doing more complex things now than were done decades back, when the majority of any workforce were hired simply based on having four working limbs.

Robots can mimic those limbs beautifully; they take no breaks, file no grievenecs, take no vacation or sick time.

AS Thomas Friedman said well "The days of being average and getting by well are over".
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-27-2012, 12:41 PM
 
93 posts, read 170,147 times
Reputation: 51
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobtn View Post
Why would they? We're doing more complex things now than were done decades back, when the majority of any workforce were hired simply based on having four working limbs.

Robots can mimic those limbs beautifully; they take no breaks, file no grievenecs, take no vacation or sick time.

AS Thomas Friedman said well "The days of being average and getting by well are over".
this may sound superstitious, but i sometimes think the reason why this recession started, the economy became the disaster, became horrible like it has been for the past 4 and a half years, and still is to this day, is that maybe it is a sign of God telling the Human Race that we Humans have had things too easy for a while, that it's time for a new challenge, obstacle to overcome like we humans have overcome before throughout the thousands, few millions of years of our existence, or maybe it's God's punishment toward's the Human race for all of the Wars, Sins we have committed throughout history.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-27-2012, 01:05 PM
 
26,585 posts, read 61,931,227 times
Reputation: 13161
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobtn View Post
Why would they? We're doing more complex things now than were done decades back, when the majority of any workforce were hired simply based on having four working limbs.

Robots can mimic those limbs beautifully; they take no breaks, file no grievenecs, take no vacation or sick time.

AS Thomas Friedman said well "The days of being average and getting by well are over".
That said, the educations that kids are getting in high school these days are blowing away what we learned.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-27-2012, 04:44 PM
 
93 posts, read 170,147 times
Reputation: 51
like i said, entry-level jobs don't exist anymore because now they require, expect years of experience
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-27-2012, 06:08 PM
 
Location: NJ
18,665 posts, read 19,934,632 times
Reputation: 7314
Quote:
Originally Posted by annerk View Post
That said, the educations that kids are getting in high school these days are blowing away what we learned.

Partly true. The technological training they get is superior, while the critical thought process development is lacking. Too many schools are taking kids to the pc to solve stuff, w/o showing them the vital concepts involved in the process. While they may learn what, they do not learn why (parts of the old 5 W(s)), which harms them later when decisions that are not black or white, or fully objective, leave them flustered at work.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-27-2012, 06:13 PM
 
Location: USA
7,474 posts, read 7,019,580 times
Reputation: 12503
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobtn View Post
Partly true. The technological training they get is superior, while the critical thought process development is lacking. Too many schools are taking kids to the pc to solve stuff, w/o showing them the vital concepts involved in the process. While they may learn what, they do not learn why (parts of the old 5 W(s)), which harms them later when decisions that are not black or white, or fully objective, leave them flustered at work.
Agreed - they also rarely BUILD anything anymore... As far as I know, most schools have removed all shop classes and similar courses for fear of lawsuits. A shop class with some older, but still working, CNC machines or something could be a real boon for teaching students how to take a concept from idea to reality, and educate them in all the bumps in the road along the way.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-27-2012, 08:39 PM
 
Location: Midwest
2,953 posts, read 5,112,425 times
Reputation: 1972
Quote:
Originally Posted by IH8HumanResources View Post
high school diplomas seem to have no meaning anymore
they dont. honestly I can't think of one job who even asked to see my high school diploma. anyone can lie and say they have one
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-27-2012, 09:31 PM
 
Location: Metro Detroit, Michigan
29,701 posts, read 24,780,162 times
Reputation: 28386
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobtn View Post
Partly true. The technological training they get is superior, while the critical thought process development is lacking. Too many schools are taking kids to the pc to solve stuff, w/o showing them the vital concepts involved in the process. While they may learn what, they do not learn why (parts of the old 5 W(s)), which harms them later when decisions that are not black or white, or fully objective, leave them flustered at work.
Anyone can punch values into a computer and get a result. The person I would want working for or with me would be the one with enough critical thinking skills to at least have an idea of what the right result should be, and why. I feel the education system today is not doing enough to foster independent and critical thinking skills. A human and a computer are exponentially more powerful when paired together. Computers do what you tell them to, and they assume you know what you are doing. Hence, human's can potentially net exponentially more wrong result when paired with said computer. More productivity is only a good thing if the output is correct.

I guess my point is, there is a lot in between the problem and answer process. Memorizing answers is one thing, but knowing and understanding what is in between is perhaps the most important and valued element of all.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
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.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Work and Employment

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:59 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top