Jobs - The Robot Dilemna - Machines Replacing People

There is a force influencing employment that most people don't realize. The gradual improvement of robotics, intelligent systems and other automation will eventually remove so many jobs that unemployment will become epidemic. The real danger to jobs isn't outsourcing. It is the improvement in technology which makes many jobs unnecessary. We have already seen this happen with agriculture. Only 1% of the American population are still involved in agriculture.
This problem has impacted agriculture, manufacturing and is now impacting the service industry. You can see this in the lower levels of the banking industry. With the introduction of ATM's and on-line banking we find that bank tellers are becoming unnecessary. This trend will eventually impact such service jobs as fast food. There a fully automated restaurant in Germany. The price of innovation is increased efficiency and the price of increased efficiency is the elimination of jobs.

More Jobs Predicted for Machines, Not People

The question is what happens to the Capitalist system when most jobs are being done by machine.
A. Do we throw away innovation and automation and stay primitive?
B. Do we keep innovation and automation with its impact on the workforce?

If we go with "A" how do we maintain the standard of living?
If we go with "B" how do we deal with 60-80 percent, or higher, unemployment?

We tend to measure success by employment and income. How do we compensate when those two things are impossible due to technological improvement? What do we do with billions of people without job?

PS. I put this in World Events because the impact will be global.

 

You pose the question that nobody seems to consider which is what kind of future are we going to have with the human population exploding, more and more nations getting access to weapons of mass destruction, more and more people wanting more while there will be less and less of everything. With the first being jobs.

Science Fiction solved this problem with the human world after world wars or to prevent world wars, etc turned to space as the international job industry on a massive global level.

 

I thought the idea was that machines would take over and we humans (in the non-corporate sense) would have a more free time to do whatever. At any rate, this is a question that has been asked probably at least since water and steam-powered looms started replacing hand ones.

 

I think this is a valid question. I'm not so sure where all the people are supposed to work when so many jobs become automated. This seems to be at a level unprecedented in our history. I think of it, for instance, every time I go to the supermarket and see the self-checkout areas.

I used to be able to get temp work word processing once upon a time -- that's gone. So is most data entry.

 

Yes technology has been replacing jobs and then technology has been creating new jobs but with the world population approaching seven billion we are heading to major problems.

 

The unemployed have lots of free time but it turns out that it isn't always all it's cracked up to be.

 

Yeah I know LOL And I don't think it was supposed to work like that. I think the idea was that people would not only have free time but would also have the finical wherewithal to enjoy it. But then I think we were all supposed to be jetting around in flying cars too. And paper was supposed to become a thing of the past. Old predictions of what the future would be like are fascinating. I think the Victorians were pretty pumped up about what was supposed to be ahead for us. Problem is that so much of what actually has come true is the Orwellian stuff.

 

Dang it! I had thought I posted on this a week or so ago... but I was too tired to notice it had failed to post (my computer issues, not the site's). I put a lot of thought into that post too... and no way I'll remember it all lol... oh well, I guess I'll try to give the "cliff-notes" (or summary) of what I was thinking last time...

When Henry Ford utilized the assembly line to build his vehicles, the process impressed others so much they began utilizing it themselves. One person performing one task repeatedly, essentially becoming an expert on that task, along with the increase in production and, therefore profit, became a necessity to compete in the markets. But people became a liability to that profit potential, they can only work so long before needing a break, they need to be payed to perform the task, and they make mistakes that affect the bottom line. So companies began using automated machines to perform those tasks. While they still need maintenance breaks, the breaks are far less often than with a person. While the machine is expensive, it eventually pays for itself... and continues to throughout it's "life". And while machines can break-down, or be improperly instructed, they make far fewer mistakes than a person would.

As mentioned in the OP, these machines have taken over a significant portion of jobs from people, and as technology inproves, more jobs will be lost. The extent of how far this will go is uncertain though, at least to me, so I'll focus on the questions DeeNeely asked instead.

The use of automation is, for the most part, limited to very large corporations. While these corporations will see significant reductions in personnel, smaller businesses are far less likely to incorporate automation into their businesses and will continue to employ people.

Hmmph... I could have just posted that last paragraph and left it at that......please forgive my excess lol

 

Capitalism is an idea that probably needs to fall by the way side. It can't even cope with the difficulties of today, what hope does this 19th century have in the face of the troubles of tomorrow?

Human history is nothing more than a list of one bad idea after another with maybe a few decent ones thrown in every so often. One thing that is certain though. This current insane runaway consumerism that's plaguing us today has to stop. We are a culture of trash today. The food we eat is trash, and nearly everything we own is little more than trash. None of it is made to last. Hell look at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch!

 

Crapitalism is failing right before our collective eyes.....Finally. When we rebuild the system, let's leave out the corporations, the 1%ers, and Fox noise.

 

Tell me about it, I look at how things are made today compared to just a couple decades ago and notice an intentional weak-engineering in most things, in order for that product to fail... in the hopes you'll just buy another one. As an example: Telephones. We tried using the 'new' cordless-types, a couple of different kind, but they always failed to work properly within a year or so. We broke out the old rotary-dials and never have an issue with them. Another example is sonic toothbrushes. I bought one, the warranty was for a year, the thing stopped working a few days after the warranty expired lol... yep, gone back to manual brushes... but miss the cleaning the sonics gave.

 

At the peak of the Industrial Revolution, when humans were employed in conditions which no one would be willing to work in today, the same refrain would have been heard as machines began replacing more and more of the workforce.

Yet, today, I doubt if many of us would wish to turn back the clock to have humans do the work they used to do before they were replaced by machines. Would you say the effect of mechanization has been negative?

Of course, the jobs that are now being taken over by robots are the better ones. Now it's more of the white collar jobs that are being lost -- jobs which most people wouldn't mind doing indefinitely. Yet, the factory workers who were being replaced by machines back then, would probably have preferred keeping those jobs rather than going back to work on farms.

The transition period is the most difficult to be living in. But the current trend of robotization is also another step forward for the humans. Where we are going is something I wouldn't be foolish enough to predict. But I have faith in this much at least; that we are moving into a new stage of (evolution?) (space travel?) something.

 

I can't disagree more. Human history is a process of realizing we're acting improperly and trying to do better. For example in most of the world we no longer prescribe torture as a punishment. Slavery, child labor, womens' rights and so on are further examples. The world is better now than it ever has been. There are fewer wars, less hunger, less disease than ever in human history. Far from perfect, but we just keep plugging away. The Great Pacific Garbage is patch is just that, garbage. I don't see the end of the world there.