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No NAFTA or GATT had nothing to do with this since the factory is still cranking out product and the companies stock is worth more than its ever been. The stake holders are happy and Capitalism has done what it is supposed to do increase the capital held by the stakeholders. Capital that all to often they invest in China or any other newly emerging market country.
Yes, more automation means less work for humans and more productivity. Less work hours per week, more leisure, and higher wages. Everybody wins! :-)
There is a disconnect here. In America higher productivity does not mean higher wages for roughly 95% of American workers. It means fewer worked hours and in many cases lower hourly wages for the few hours they are lucky enough to work. It has been this way for the last 35 years!
A large portion of the population isn't good for much of anything besides the most menial labor and a large chunk of people aren't even good enough for that. The future will bring more automation, making those with low occupational value to be worth even less. The big question is what should we do with these people?
Well once the big three automakers once employed 3 million blue collar working men and a few women making fewer cars than less than 300,000 do today . Detroit wouldn't have square miles of vacant lots and decaying buildings that were once Ford, GM, Chrystler or AMC plants and have over a million more people as would Flint and its suburbs and the small cities that dot that part of the Midwest. The big 3 also outsources all the parts needed to make those cars from small machine shots and people making glass steel, rubber and paid thousands of truckers and rail people to get all the parts to the big assembly plants in SE Michigan . it was estimated about 15 million workers in those industries owed their jobs to the American car makers. Changing technology, materials and process engineering and auto design is one reason they don't make basic. steel any more in Youngstown and the Pittsburgh area. Also todays big 3 find it makes more sense to build whole engines and other machined assemblies in Brazil, Mexico, Italy Spain, Thailand, Korea and even China.
So I think the question about how automation and changing business procedures being nothing but pure GOOD needs to be thought over long and hard, because telling replaced or surplus workers to go off and get an education on their own nickel to qualify new jobs that won't be there or competing for temporary low wage jobs with their kids isn't really cutting it and hasn't ever since 1980. Half of the manufacturing jobs in the USA have disappeared since 1980 and 80% of them before we even opened up trade with China in 1999 .
" Half of the manufacturing jobs in the USA have disappeared since 1980"
Not trying to being argumentative but, I would like to see some data to support it.
Even IF true, we are STILL the No. 2 manufacturing country in the world.
Man has "invented" things things from the beginning of time to make his work easier and smarter.
It is not good for the majority of people to stifle new inventions and ways of doing things.
How many were employed in the IT industry in the 70's? How many today?
This will be a big problem in the near future and the federal government should start crafting legislation immediately. I think all humans that lose their job due to a greedy, fat cat tech or robotics company should be compensated with five years of pay and four years of schooling for a new career. If the company refuses than tax the living hell out of them and give all the laid-off folks a guaranteed income for life.
"This will be a big problem in the near future"
What makes you think it is differwnt today then any OTHER time in history?
SHould car NOT replaced the horse and buggy?
Should the railroad NOT have replaced the stagecoach?
Should the airplane NOT have replaced the railroad for passenger service?
Should you be typing your fascist crap on a typewriter and mailing it in rather then using a computer and the Internet?
The ax, the hammer, the chainsaw? When would you have liked to stopped?
"and the federal government should start crafting legislation immediately." Right, they have done such a great job so far.
I'm waiting for automated customers which will interact with those automated kiosks.
Decide what want, send out the drone, and voila! A mucilage burger with fries delivered to yo doah!
Now if we can just do something about that chewing and swallowing hassle...
A later state solution may have have a visiting automated delivery vehicle delivering orders via app (or when the implants are perfected, simply wishing for a rooburger and fries). The food may even be assembled on board as the food 'drone'/vehicle traverses its regular route?
The possible scenarios are many...should be fun . Not a lot more jobs here though.
The stake holders are happy and Capitalism has done what it is supposed to do increase the capital held by the stakeholders. Capital that all to often they invest in China or any other newly emerging market country.
There is a disconnect here. In America higher productivity does not mean higher wages for roughly 95% of American workers. It means fewer worked hours and in many cases lower hourly wages for the few hours they are lucky enough to work. It has been this way for the last 35 years!
I agree, the number of work hours per week continues to go down as well as salaries. Poor folks put up with this because this has not reached a critical boiling point yet. But, if the trend continues there will be some sort of new thesis to deal with the era where machines do most of the work and most people are unemployed.
I cannot predict the future, but something NEW will develop. I envision a few solutions:
1. Cut down the work week to 15 hours so more people can be employed.
2. Perhaps because of automation the prices of goods can become so cheap that even those in the lower economic strata can survive. A good example is the cell phone which was only available to the rich at the onset and now nearly everyone in the planet owns one.
3.Fully automated agriculture where food becomes so cheap it is almost free.
4. Advanced construction techniques where building a house is dirt cheap. Why do we still build homes with wood sticks and with hand labor?
5. The elite will be so rich that further accumulation of wealth will become redundant. Lately many of the richest men in the world have reach this consensus and plan to give it all away. There will be voluntary wealth redistribution as the rich realize there is nothing else they can buy with money.
But, who knows, the above is only speculation.
There is also the possibility that automation will be so efficient that no one will need to work again.
What makes you think it is differwnt today then any OTHER time in history?
SHould car NOT replaced the horse and buggy?
Should the railroad NOT have replaced the stagecoach?
Should the airplane NOT have replaced the railroad for passenger service?
Should you be typing your fascist crap on a typewriter and mailing it in rather then using a computer and the Internet?
The ax, the hammer, the chainsaw? When would you have liked to stopped?
"and the federal government should start crafting legislation immediately." Right, they have done such a great job so far.
The greedy, unscrupulous tech companies of Silicon Valley and Seattle will have to pay, one way or another. Either they have integrity and morals and compensate the people who lose their jobs due to robotics and automation or they pay the price with social unrest and revolution.
What we need is an "automation tax" of about 40% on all these greedy, fat cat tech companies who will be replacing humans with machines. All the fat cat employees of these companies such as the engineers and software developers should pay a 25% tax. All of the proceeds would then be used to provide the laid off workers with five years of pay and four years of schooling for a new career. It's high time these parasitic, greedy tech companies put their money where their mouths are; by making the world a better place which they say they want to do.
The greedy, unscrupulous tech companies of Silicon Valley and Seattle will have to pay, one way or another. Either they have integrity and morals and compensate the people who lose their jobs due to robotics and automation or they pay the price with social unrest and revolution.
What we need is an "automation tax" of about 40% on all these greedy, fat cat tech companies who will be replacing humans with machines. All the fat cat employees of these companies such as the engineers and software developers should pay a 25% tax. All of the proceeds would then be used to provide the laid off workers with five years of pay and four years of schooling for a new career. It's high time these parasitic, greedy tech companies put their money where their mouths are; by making the world a better place which they say they want to do.
"The greedy, unscrupulous tech companies" " on all these greedy, fat cat tech companies"
Sorry you lost any amount of credibility you may have had with me.
You OBVIOUSLY have an axe to grind with these " greedy, unscrupulous tech companies" which is affecting your reasoning.
How many companies have you owned or ran successfully?
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