Immigrants aren't stealing jobs, robots are

[Legion Troll]

Job insecurity is a central theme of the 2016 campaign, fueling popular anger about trade deals and immigration. But economists warn that much bigger job losses are ahead in the United States — driven not by foreign competition but by advancing technology.

A look at the numbers suggests that the country is having the wrong economic debate this year. Employment security won’t come from renegotiating trade deals, as Donald Trump said. These are palliatives.

The deeper problem facing the United States is how to provide meaningful work and good wages for the tens of millions of truck drivers, accountants, factory workers and office clerks whose jobs will disappear in coming years because of robots, driverless vehicles and “machine learning” systems.

The political debate needs to engage the taboo topic of guaranteeing economic security to families — through a universal basic income, or a greatly expanded earned-income tax credit, or a 1930s-style plan for public-works employment. Ranting about bad trade deals won’t begin to address the problem.

The “automation bomb” could destroy 45 percent of the work activities currently performed in the United States, representing about $2 trillion in annual wages, according to a study last year by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. We’ve seen only the beginning of this change, they warned.

Currently, only 5 percent of occupations can be entirely automated, but 60 percent of occupations could soon see machines doing 30 percent or more of the work.

The McKinsey analysts sharpened their argument in a paper released last month. Their estimates, based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data covering more than 800 occupations, draw a shocking picture of the future.

• In manufacturing, 59 percent of activities could be automated, and that includes “90 percent of what welders, cutters, solderers and brazers do.”
• In food service and accommodations, 73 percent of the work could be performed by machines.
• In retailing, 53 percent of current jobs could be lost.

White-collar workers may imagine that they’re safe, but that’s wishful thinking. 66 percent of jobs in finance and insurance could be replaced, the most recent report says.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-brave-new-world-of-robots-and-lost-jobs/2016/08/11/e66a4914-5fff-11e6-af8e-54aa2e849447_story.html?utm_term=.1455bd94c78b&wpisrc=nl_draw2&wpmm=1

 

[Legionthecat]

Let's build a wall to keep the robots out.

 

[Legion Troll]

Let's build a wall to keep the robots out.

Robot slaves would be the Libertarian dream.

 

[Legionthecat]

Robot slaves would be the Libertarian dream.

Robots are the answer libertarians have for demands of a living wage from hard working human beings.

 

[Legion Troll]

Robots are the answer libertarians have for demands of a living wage from hard working human beings.

Robots require almost no government regulation and don't pay taxes, and this is the Libertarian ideal.

Of course, robots don't vote Libertarian, but neither do most people.

 

[Timshel]

Hell, yeah, robots are going to/have increase(d) our standard of living. Take your sabot and shove it, stupid Luddites.

 

[Legion Troll]

Hell, yeah, robots are going to/have increase(d) our standard of living. Take your sabot and shove it, stupid Luddites.

 

[cawacko]

Robots are the answer libertarians have for demands of a living wage from hard working human beings.

Should the federal government step in and prevent technological advancements that will have robots play a larger role in society?

 

[Legionthecat]

Hell, yeah, robots are going to/have increase(d) our standard of living. Take your sabot and shove it, stupid Luddites.

What will increase the standard of living for the tens of millions of your fellow American citizens who will be unemployed by robotic services?
Or don't savage libertarians care about the standard of living of anyone but themselves.

 

[Legion Troll]

Should the federal government step in and prevent technological advancements that will have robots play a larger role in society?

Think so?

 

[Legion Troll]

What will increase the standard of living for the tens of millions of your fellow American citizens who will be unemployed by robotic services?
Or don't savage libertarians care about the standard of living of anyone but themselves.

Millions of our fellow American citizens are already unemployed because of robotic services, according to the report cited in the OP.

Perhaps Libertarians think these people should just die.

 

[canceled.2021.1]

So are democrats lying when they say all of these immigrants are coming here for "jobs Americans refuse to do"? IT would seem so

Additionally, if these "immigrants" aren't coming here for work then why do we need to let them in? Seems like more of an argument for limiting the influx don't you think?

Oh wait, you don't think.

 

[Legionthecat]

Should the federal government step in and prevent technological advancements that will have robots play a larger role in society?

That doesn't sound like a lasting answer.
I predict that personalized services will become valued more highly in a mostly robotically serviced world, just as handmade articles were revalued shortly after the industrial revolution.
High dollar restaurants will not have Wendy's style kiosks to tell swanky customers about today's portobello mushroom sauce.
That will still leave a lot of food workers out of work, but mandated phasing in, may leave them enough time to seek other skills that can not be as easily automated. When motor cars swept the country, livery stable workers had to look for other places to become gainfully employed doing different things, didn't they.
The savage libertarian view is that workers are disposable and as long as their lives improve, nothing else matters.
We can see that right here on this page.

 

[cawacko]

That doesn't sound like a lasting answer.
I predict that personalized services will become valued more highly in a mostly robotically serviced world, just as handmade articles were revalued shortly after the industrial revolution.
High dollar restaurants will not have Wendy's style kiosks to tell swanky customers about today's portobello mushroom sauce.
That will still leave a lot of food workers out of work, but mandated phasing in, may leave them enough time to seek other skills that can not be as easily automated. When motor cars swept the country, livery stable workers had to look for other places to become gainfully employed doing different things, didn't they.
The savage libertarian view is that workers are disposable and as long as their lives improve, nothing else matters.
We can see that right here on this page.

How is what you are describing different that a Libertarian view? No Libertarian is saying it should be national policy to not have workers.

 

[Legion Troll]

So are democrats lying when they say all of these immigrants are coming here for "jobs Americans refuse to do"? IT would seem so Additionally, if these "immigrants" aren't coming here for work then why do we need to let them in? Seems like more of an argument for limiting the influx don't you think? Oh wait, you don't think.

When you've read the OP, get back to me.

Oh, wait, you don't read.

 

[Timshel]

I have maggots in my scrotum!

 

[Legionthecat]

How is what you are describing different that a Libertarian view? No Libertarian is saying it should be national policy to not have workers.

See post#6 for the libertarian view of this dilemma our nation faces.

 

[Timshel]

The savage libertarian view is that workers are disposable and as long as their lives improve, nothing else matters.

Libertarians view workers as disposable because we want workers to have a higher standard of living?

 

[cawacko]

See post#6 for the libertarian view of this dilemma our nation faces.

That is a fact and nothing really libertarian about that statement

 

[Legion Troll]

Libertarians view workers as disposable because we want workers to have a higher standard of living?

So you say.