Yes, robots will steal our jobs; but don’t worry, we’ll get new ones

[LuckyTheDog]

The U.S. economy added 2.7 million jobs in 2015, capping the best two-year stretch of employment growth since the late ‘90’s, pushing the unemployment rate down to five percent.

But to listen to the doomsayers, it’s just a matter of time before the rapid advance of technology makes most of today’s workers obsolete – with ever-smarter machines replacing teachers, drivers, travel agents, interpreters and a slew of other occupations.

Almost half of those currently employed in the U.S. are at risk of being put out of work by automation in the next decade or two, according to a 2013 University of Oxford study, which identified transportation, logistics and administrative occupations as most vulnerable.

Does that mean that these formerly employed workers will have nowhere to go? Is the recent job growth a last gasp before machines take over, or can robots and workers coexist?

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/yes-robots-will-steal-our-jobs-but-dont-worry/

[Brickbat]

1. According to the article, they'll have plenty of opportunity as long as they move and are willing

to work for less, or shell out for more education. It's articles like this that make me believe in a guaranteed minimum income.

[LuckyTheDog]

3. I agree

A guaranteed minimum income, based in part on the rising productivity in the economy gained from automation and artificial intelligence, is a great idea.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. More 'retraining' BS.

Fighting a rear-guard action to proclaim that capitalism still works, and that we can all just find 'different' jobs.

We're not creating new types of jobs anywhere near as fast as automation is replacing existing jobs. Robots are being designed now to replace bartenders, restaurant cooks, servers. When google-car technology is mature, it's going to wipe out the trucking industry, which provides more jobs than any other industry in many states. And the people no longer driving trucks are not all going to find work coding self-driving cars or repairing them.

We have to take a serious look at a universal basic income, shorter work weeks at higher pay and spreading around the wealth, not just leaving it in the hands of those who can afford to own the robots.

[former9thward]

4. That job growth is in the service sector.

Not manufacturing. Manufacturing is where good paying jobs are and that is where most robots are being used to reduce human labor. It is not as profitable to use robots in the service sector because the labor is not as expensive. But that will be next.

[Autumn Colors]

5. EMRs already took mine

Electronic Medical Records have already taken most of my medical transcription (MT) work. I'm self-employed, so no unemployment check for me. At least I have Medicaid now ... sadly, I had to lay off all my other MTs and lost my home to foreclosure. I had a traditional 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a payment that was within my budget ... I wasn't expecting to lose nearly all my income in a matter of months, though.

Still haven't discovered what's going to replace this, though. Thankfully, my significant other has a good job or I'd be homeless now.

I thought my MT training would take me through to retirement since EMR systems were so expensive and voice recognition wasn't that accurate at first. Wasn't expecting all my practices to be offered gov't. grant money to install such a system thanks to the ACA. But like I said, I lost my insurance, but at least I now have Medicaid.

So, as a woman in her mid-50s without a Bachelor's Degree, what exactly am I supposed to train for? I can't go back to college ... can't afford it ... and even if it were free, I have bills to pay, so I need to work and could only study part time.



PS: Yes, there are jobs doing editing of voice recognition-generated documents and working with EMR document systems. Unfortunately, there are thousands of unemployed MTs like me who are trying to get those jobs. There's a job site that actually lists how many people have applied for each job listing and within days, you'll see thousands of people have applied for each job since many of these can be done at home, so you have to compete with all unemployed MTs from all over the county.

[HughBeaumont]

6. Capitalism's awesome until you realize robots can't buy products.

Think corporate America is going to figure this out now or when the starving nomadic mobs lead them to the gibbetts?

Either way, I'm not seeing a good ending to this. Conservative America would rather die than institute a Guaranteed Minimum Income. They'd never stand for that, since the one thing that keeps their hearts beating is knowing someone else's life sucks worse than theirs does. It's almost like a second job for a congressperson and a wealthmonger to employ "build the moat, close the drawbridge" economics. Keeping people in their rightful place makes them despicably happy.

[Populist_Prole]

7. +1

It's true on its own merits but I still believe the robot issue is just a red-herring from the plutocrats and neoliberals as a way of whitewashing. They're trying to substitute productivity rises as a way of explaining away the loss of manufacturing jobs, where the real source is rent-seeking abroad.

[tokenlib]

8. Enough of the promises of retraining..

It is time to realize the Service economy is lowering the standard if living for the masses.. We need a living wage/minimum wage.