Automation

[Frederick]

I've been reading quite a bit about automation, and i've listened to a podcast interview of Barack Obama talking about automation and how it's affecting jobs in the U.S.

I'm wondering how ya'll feel about automation in the workplace, and how it will displace jobs in the long-term.

http://www.payscale.com/career-news...will-make-lot-good-middle-class-jobs-obsolete

Will it be necessary to have a sort of social safety net, force companies to hire people, or will automation have little or no effect on unemployment? Not everyone is an engineer, a scientist or a technician, how will this effect our economy in the long-term?

 

[cobra1]

Associate Degree in Electronics, with a few Robotics classes, BOOM, you got a job, basically what i do for a living, $43.00 hour

 

[donner]

There are some interesting articles out there about how raising the minimum wage will push fast food companies to invest in automation and self service

 

[lasher]

there will always be a need for skilled hand work, other than massage parlors. my son in law is a Master plumber (now attending college to become a history/coach instructor) , sometime in everyone's life they will need a plumber or electrician. really good carpenters will always be in demand, as will be masons who remember what wall ties are for. before retirement i was an IT admin and engineer, and did outside work for farmer's co-ops in arkansas, i charged 85 an hour. after that one of my oldest friends and i did basically odd jobs for a client list of folks with really deep pockets and not enough time to take care of minor chores, $125 an hour for changing light bulbs is a good gig LOL

 

[Dave70968]

There are some interesting articles out there about how raising the minimum wage will push fast food companies to invest in automation and self service

The same way it already has at grocery stores.

 

[dugby]

When we have air, we look for water, when we have water we look for food, when we have food we look for ?.

With automation comes Einsteins paradox of the perfection of means and confusion of goals. “We’re the only nation in the world where all our poor people are fat.” — Phil Gramm, 9/6/81.

The foundation for ? is the autonomy and self reliance that our founders had and we have since lost. That as we pursue whatever we define as our ?, we can do it on our own terms and in the context that most pleases us. This was the construct held in our declaration of independence as "The pursuit of happiness". We have traded our autonomy for dependence and allowed others to define our "Pursuit of happiness". When you must depend on those you cannot trust or those who simply define happiness in a different way, you are a slave.

When we get burned out on the toys and other materialistic crap that lured us into our present trap, we will again be able to focus on our autonomy and with that begin again our pursuits of what is meaningful.

Proverbs 23King James Version (KJV)
23 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

This is why we are commanded in the bible to make no covenants. God freed his people not because they were starving, the Egytians had saved them from that, but because they could not progress in their pursuit of the meaningful from a position of bondage.

Rugged individualism and voluntarism offer the best vantage to liberate each of us into our own pursuit of what is joyful and meaningful.

 

[Okie4570]

There are some interesting articles out there about how raising the minimum wage will push fast food companies to invest in automation and self service

This can't happen soon enough.

 

[John6185]

Hawaii is going to $20.00 per hour minimum wage in five years. Figure that out!

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

Automation will only have a major effect on mass production. Still, technicians will be in demand to build, set up, feed material to, inspect, and maintain the automation. Piece work by skilled labor will always be in demand.

Back when automatic transmissions started appearing in cars, people said that drivers would eventually lose their left leg because there was no longer a need to push a clutch pedal.

With automation, production goes up, price comes down, people have more to spend elsewhere which creates demand for other products, new innovations, different skills, etc. etc.

Automation has never caused a depression or recession. Those things are caused by increased government with higher taxes and tougher regulations. Greedy unions artificially increase the costs of the production of goods which will limit demand and cost jobs. Rising insurance costs don't help either.

With government and greedy unions out of the way, there will never be a need for a 'safety net' for laborers, skilled or unskilled.

Woody

 

[Mos Eisley]

Network transformation is putting me out of a job pretty soon. With IPv6, the software defined network, and other advances, all the proprietary equipment that is used to make use of your cell phones is going the way of the dinosaur. I got in this career when we were still using Baudot code on teletypewriters. Now there is no difference between your computer and your cell phone. I always knew it was coming and I guess 30 years isn't a bad run. I'm just not an IT guy. I'm a communications dude.