Will technology and automation destroy the job market?

  • Thread starter Thread starter wcknight
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

wcknight

Guest
Are we approaching the beginning of the end for many or most jobs by humans ? we are seeing more and more automation in the work place. At supermarkets self check machine are replacing the need for many checkout cashiers. One person can handle six or more checkout stations.

In some car factories (Toyota in particular), robotic machines can do 90% of the work that humans used to do with no human intervention. You don’t even have to turn on the lights or heat for them.

Auto makers are looking into making cars that can drive themselves. You just sit back and let the cars do their own thing. This could easily carry over to trucks train or even cargo ships.

Eventually we will have robots that can perform most or all of the jobs that a human can. Will this put most humans out of a job ? What will our economy look like, how will people make enough to feed themselves or have enough income to buy the things that they need or want ? Can you imagine a future where more that half the people are unemployed ??? :eek::confused:
 
Well, part of a more automated society means there’s a huge job field in computers and IT that wasn’t there before, and more tools means more construction, more installation, more support, and more maintenance (maintenance can be a big one). The idea that machines will kill the job market has been prevalent since the textile boom, and it hasn’t seemed to happen yet. The big question and exception to this rule is: what happens if/when robots start building and sustaining themselves? More than likely, humans are still going to be wanted elsewhere. The job market will largely become service oriented.
 
Yes, it is a huge problem, we still haven’t learned, just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean you should. Technology should be used to alleviate suffering, not to produce more of it. There is good technology and harmful and we shouldn’t just run amok because we can.
 
Will we all become people of leisure or artisans while the robots do all the hard work? I wonder about this myself. My son likes to talk about the coming “singularity” when technology moves beyond our ability to handle it (or something like that - he is a big fan of science fiction too; me, not so much). I see that the future will involve change, as it always does. People will adapt to automation, though I’m not entirely sure how. Sadly, the adjustment will be painful for some, as we already see with manufacturing.
 
Automation destroying jobs has been a concerned that was raised from the time of the beginning of the industrial revolution. There have been certain jobs that have been replaced by automa such as elevator operators, computer (which in the 1600s referred to a person that did math) some manufacturing jobs, and so on. There have also been areas in which large portions of the labor have been replaced by automata such as telephone operators, production of cloth, and more. There was a time when companies needed to keep an IT staff for maintaining their servers. But between Microsoft’s Azure services, Amazon’s web services, and Google’s Cloud services. it’s possible to have more solutions that involve the use of servers without needing a significant staff size.

To stay employeed I think it’s necessary to always be in the habit of expanding your skill set and stay attractive to employers. Some one that knew how to use Photoshop years ago would not be as valuable today with the skillset that they had those years ago because simpler editing skills are accessible to so many more people. Some of which I know had to move to higher ground and concentrate more on creative design. I myself have abandoned some skills and sharpened others and know I will need to continue to do so until I am ready to retire. Some one working in areas of unskilled labor is more likely in more danger of loosing his or her job.

Something on which I am not clear is the balance between how many jobs are destroyed and created by automation. While we don’t pay people as often for being computers I would hazard a guess that there are more people that do accounting and taxes than there were back when computer still referred to a person.

Side note, I was dating a girl years ago and had the opportunity to meet her mother. Introductions included a description of what one did for a living. The mother went first. She told me about how she worked in a lightbulb factor in harsh conditions for years. It was hot, had its own dangers, but it was her job. One day they introduced a machine that could do her job. They gave her a severance and sent her on her way. Now she cleans hotel rooms. She told me to never trust computer people because they will destroy your job. Then she asked me what type of work I did. I’m a Software Engineer.
 
I was a software engineer before I retired a few years back. I started as a programmer, and eventually got into just about everything, PC’s maintenance and repair, network and systems administration, even some hardware stuff, and of course I got back into software development almost exclusively.

It may seem like more jobs are being created in technology, but to me it seems that we can get to some point where humans or most of them will not be needed to make things works. Computer will build or repair themselves, and maybe even program themselves.

Robotics in particular would seem to be the ultimate job killer. I would love to have a robot mow my lawn and wash dishes, but I would think there is a point at which they would take over far too much.

IF you go to CHina you will see a lot of redundant labor. There are so many people and not enough jobs, so more folks than really necessary are put into just about every position. You will see 8 or 9 doorman or more in the lobby of a hotel. Here we rarely see more than one. There will be hundreds at a work site when only a fraction of that many are needed. I suppose the government is required to put everyone to work, so they have to make jobs available anywhere and everywhere where even if they are not necessary…

IT is probably better than here, where we have a high unemployment rate, but it hardly seems very efficient. In a future world 100 or 200 years from now with robots or androids roaming around doing much of the labor, what will folks be doing ? The world only needs so many programmers.
 
I watched a 60 Minutes news short and a documentary regarding using robots in the job market not too long ago. Many employers who originally moved their manufacturing facilities to China are now moving the back to the USA; but don’t be fooled. We would think that these corporations who move back to the USA would hire Americans right?

Wrong. In the end, these corporations found it cheaper to invest in robots rather than cheap labor in China. You don’t have to pay robots anything. I guess paying $1 a day to a poor Chinese worker who works at least 12 hours or more a day is just too expensive for these manufacturers. So even though these corporations are moving back to their countries of origin, they are not hiring new workers. In fact, not hiring at all. Robots can perform all the things that humans apparently can, in a much better and cheaper way; it only takes a robot to learn something once in order to master whatever it is being taught.

I had a co-worker who used to work at a state-of-the-art facility where pretty much everything out in the plant was run by robots. Robots built the parts, robots transferred the parts, robots ran inventory, etc. Why hire humans when robots can do it better? At least, this is what corporations have in mind. They could care less about the people they hire anyway.

I don’t think we should be giving robots control of everything. Yes, I know, I’ve been told I’ve been reading/watching/playing too much sci-fi media…but think of all the portrayals of A.I. in the media…remember the Geth and Reapers in the Mass Effect series? The Berserkers in Saberhagen’s books? I, Robot? I can see rising unemployment now and in the future, but maybe not something quite as threatening now.
 
Most of my friends, as well as myself, all work jobs that simply did not exist before all of these technical revolutions.

While it is true that there are many jobs that will end up being taken by automation, there are other jobs created by this same process.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top