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I'm genuinely curious, because logically/mathematically there is nothing different between finding more efficient producers overseas who lower the cost to all consumers here, and machine automation which would equally displace inefficient workers.
This would apply to all sorts of efficient technologies - superior computers that negate the need for a lot of office work, etc.
dont have to go 11th century in our fear of modernization however, 21 million illegal immigrants and wholsale outresourcing to outside the country is having an effect.
I'm genuinely curious, because logically/mathematically there is nothing different between finding more efficient producers overseas who lower the cost to all consumers here, and machine automation which would equally displace inefficient workers.
This would apply to all sorts of efficient technologies - superior computers that negate the need for a lot of office work, etc.
Just out of curiosity - how old are you???
If you're currently in the work-force, maybe you're in a job that is immune from outsourcing or offshoring... consider yourself lucky...
Not all jobs that are outsourced can be done by machines - especially those where things are not manually intensive - or that require brain power as opposed to manual labor. Besides, most jobs that can be easily replaced by machines already have been.
The overall economy is definitely suffering as the outsourcing movement has finally reached critical-mass - to the extent that most people are afraid to spend because they don't know if their job will be outsourced tomorrow..
We are a 70% consumption driven economy.. When consumers stop buying - our economy tanks - as it is now... That hurts everyone, and can become a deflationary spiral when it causes consumers to lose confidence in their future.
While I can understand why outsourcing has negative effects in the short term, the long run investments those same companies make in R&D creates more jobs and more higher paying jobs. There is a certain point where industry reaches its 'peak'. It becomes too expensive to manufacture goods in developed nations as costs of living rises. As a nation matures, heavy industry tends to go overseas. It is an uphill battle to keep heavy industry in developed nations, we have seen this effect with the auto, steel, and paper industries.
Although I have not confirmed it for myself, I once heard that for every job replaced by robots, two jobs are created elsewhere.
If you don't outsource jobs, but instead employ technology that eliminates them, then you've still lost jobs for Americans. That's just a bunch of different words to say the same thing.
I'm genuinely curious, because logically/mathematically there is nothing different between finding more efficient producers overseas who lower the cost to all consumers here, and machine automation which would equally displace inefficient workers.
This would apply to all sorts of efficient technologies - superior computers that negate the need for a lot of office work, etc.
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Not true. Suggest you read history, not construct "logical" arguments which the record (e.g. history) shows are incorrect.
I'm genuinely curious, because logically/mathematically there is nothing different between finding more efficient producers overseas who lower the cost to all consumers here, and machine automation which would equally displace inefficient workers.
This would apply to all sorts of efficient technologies - superior computers that negate the need for a lot of office work, etc.
this is not correct. i work at one of the jobs that went from manual to robot. robots still need operators, someone to fix problems. those people need management, there are skilled trades to fix the machine that the robot is being used on etc. the point is robots aren't like outsourcing, because outsourcing takes every person and tax dollar out of the country. there is no operator or skilled trade job, or management left when a company outsources.
If you don't outsource jobs, but instead employ technology that eliminates them, then you've still lost jobs for Americans. That's just a bunch of different words to say the same thing.
Would the same go for computers, software, the Internet? Should we bring back typists, dictation, etc. How about elevator operators, typesetters? Should we ban ATM's, the fast pass for tolls? They all eliminated jobs.
It's called progress. If we do not do it, our foreign competitors will and we lose. It is a global economy. Imagine if the US banned the use of robotics in assembly plants in the US. GM, Ford, and Chrysler would become less competitive. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, BMW, etc. would close plants in the US and make cars more efficiently and export them to the US.... We'd lose to the Koreans, French, Italians, Swedes, and others on the world market...
Machines still need PEOPLE to program a machine, feed machines raw materials, and people to remove and package raw and finished machined products, without man/woman to do these tasks, machines are useless, and worthless. we can't help it that china, india, and other countries cut the throats of American workers by paying them 50 cents a day, and corporations that pay no tariffs or taxes for outsourcing American labor.
I'm genuinely curious, because logically/mathematically there is nothing different between finding more efficient producers overseas who lower the cost to all consumers here, and machine automation which would equally displace inefficient workers.
This would apply to all sorts of efficient technologies - superior computers that negate the need for a lot of office work, etc.
There is nothing logical, much less mathematical, in an argument that defaults workers to being "inefficient". Advanced technologies like robotics may displace labor, it doesn't replace worker. The shift happens in expertise, often from manual to one that could be more technical.
This argument has been around, it seems, forever. In the 1980s, as I was preparing to go for engineering (I have a masters degree in robotics), computers were considered by many to displace human workers. They just created a whole new segment of work.
Outsourcing is a whole another issue, one that will settle only after America achieves standard of living that matches many third world countries, when we will be able to compete with them in terms of wages. As I said in another thread, that will be a corporatists' wet dream come true.
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