As a supporter of free market principles, I'm having to face the reality of our automated future

I am a true believer in liberalism, free market and the pursuit of happiness however I am faced with a cold hard reality.

-Automation is replacing the human workforce-

Inc.com

New research predicts that almost every major American metropolitan area will lose the majority of its jobs to automation in the next 20 years. In low-wage large metropolitan areas including Las Vegas, Nevada; El Paso, Texas; San Bernardino County, in Southern California; robots are poised to take more than 60% by 2035, according to analysis from the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis.

Source

Foxconn, the largest contract electronics manufacturer in the world, says it has automated away 60,000 jobs in one of its factories, according to the BBC.

TheGuardian

For example, Australian company Fastbrick Robotics has developed a robot, the Hadrian X, that can lay 1,000 standard bricks in one hour – a task that would take two human bricklayers the better part of a day or longer to complete.

In 2015, San Francisco-based startup Simbe Robotics unveiled Tally, a robot the company describes as “the world’s first fully autonomous shelf auditing and analytics solution” that roams supermarket aisles alongside human shoppers during regular business hours and ensures that goods are adequately stocked, placed and priced.

TechRepublic

While Amazon employs more than 220,00 people and is growing fast, it is also pursuing technologies that would ultimately allow it to replace many workers in its warehouses worldwide.

La Times

Trucking paid for Scott Spindola to take a road trip down the coast of Spain, climb halfway up Machu Picchu, and sample a Costa Rican beach for two weeks. The 44-year-old from Covina now makes up to $70,000 per year, with overtime, hauling goods from the port of Long Beach. He has full medical coverage and plans to drive until he retires.

Ok I think you get the point. Yes there will be new industries that pop up because of this but I think regardless of the amount of robot mechanic jobs that pop up we are in for some reason economic disparity and unless we want to turn into Elysium in the very near future we need to start really thinking outside of the box. We don't need 7 billion software developers and network engineers nor do we need 7 billion mechanical engineers. From my perspective unless we culturally adapt to our rapidly advancing technology we will go the way of the horse.

USA Horse and Mule population

As you can see in the graph, for the period of 1900-1960 the population hit its high in 1920 with a combined population of horses and mules of over 25 million. The low was in 1960 with a population of just over 3 million - a drop of over 22 million horses and mules in just 40 years.

As you can see the horses did not adapt quickly enough to the new economy and acquire a new skill set so they died off.

7.2 million jobs lost in the US

7,231,000 Lost Jobs: Manufacturing Employment Down 37% From 1979 Peak

It's no secret to anyone who's 40+ that things have changed especially here in the US where most people make the same amount of money they made in the 80-90's but retain 1/3 or 1/2 of the purchasing power the same wage had back then, benefits have gotten worse, things cost more and on and on and on.

So what do we do, do we go the way of the horse or do we start working on new ideas??

a reply to: toysforadults

Giving what I have learned over the years about free markets-we are screwed.

What options do we have? The symbiotic relationship between customer (consumer) and manufacturer is going to become a untenable relationship.

Perhaps a universal income? But the free marketers are going to grab their chest and act like death is near. But with out that there is going to be a massive unrest and it will not work.

This "robo-jobocalypse" scenario gets trotted out every summer when the newspapers are short of news. Other firm favourites include "Nick Bostrom says we might be living in a simulated universe" and "OMG antibiotics are going to stop working".

I'll believe it when I see it, and not before. Robots might be good for certain 'mindless' tasks, but artificial intelligence doesn't exist yet and there is no reason to suppose that (if it ever happens) it will be at a useful standard. So far the crowning glory of the theoretical field called "AI" is a computer program that can win at the Japanese board-game Go.

Not exactly SkyNet, in other words.

a reply to: audubon

I'll believe it when I see it, and not before.

We have already been seeing it hence the loss of nearly 10 million jobs in just a few short decades and it's only increasing at a faster rate.

Been saying it for twenty years or better. Corporations want essentially cost free operations. I knew it was coming as soon as I started seeing "self checkout" counters in the super markets.

What they fall to realize is that an automated economy is an economy that is invariably destined to collapse. You'll have millions on top of millions of people, on a global scale billions, unemployed. Where's all of the business going to come from? The handful of the wealthy? Yeah, good luck with that. It'll never work.

a reply to: SpeakerofTruth

Corporate -

"quantitative analysis"

"short term thinking"

"now now now"

"bonus bonus bonus"

Just create a planet wide emp..... Problem solved

a reply to: toysforadults

Start researching the "post-employment" economy. It's where we are inevitably heading. Research it and adapt; it's important, especially for free market capitalist voters such as yourself.

Automation will not replace human workers.
At one time coal was dug by hand, now it's trucks and bulldozers.
Every town had a blacksmith shoeing horses, now we have auto mechanics.
Machines will increase productivity.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Increasing individual productivity won't decrease the need for producers?

It won't work but in their short-sighted drive for profits every company that can will automate. It's like the pinanta is dropping and they're out to grab all the goodies they can before the party ends. This will actually be the main driver of the coming economic collapse. Sales will fall with increasing unemployment leading to businesses going belly up putting more fuel on the fire.

Working as a hand engraver my job was safe but disability put an end to that. There won't be many jobs that robotics and automation can't replace. I never use the self-checkout at the grocery store and refuse to use machines if I have the option of working with a real person. As consumers it's the only thing we can do to slow down the inevitable bust. Greed will do us in. Where we go from there God only knows.

a reply to: toysforadults

Isn't this just the 'lump of labour' fallacy writ large?

When the telephone was on the verge of becoming established in Britain in the late C19th, the Post-Master General said it would never catch on: "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys."

Messenger boys ended up extinct, but society progressed anyway.

The robo-jobocalypse might well happen, but if it does new jobs will be invented for people to do. Probably.

a reply to: toysforadults


Every business adapts or dies.
The employees do the same.
We have fewer farmers producing more food.

Adapt, evolve, change

a reply to: toysforadults

Doom porn comes in many forms and this is no different. Markets and jobs will adapt. It might not 'feel' easy or welcome, but nothing worth pursuing ever is. Every new industry spawns new jobs to replace the previous; and often more numerous in number. Call me @reality when john titor returns; Or when the Terminator comes for you, and I'll listen. I'll listen, and again tell you how # will grow and adapt. The end of the world as we know it should be a welcome thing; the end of the world, however, will not likely come in any meaningful amount of time.

a reply to: Bluntone22

How do we adapt?

Without using broad generalizations..

a reply to: ixc77

How did industry replace the 7+ million jobs that have been lost since 1979??

a reply to: toysforadults

Did they?

a reply to: seasonal

Did they what?

a reply to: toysforadults

You wrote

How did industry replace the 7+ million jobs that have been lost since 1979??

I wrote

Did they? (replace the jobs)

a reply to: toysforadults

The same way we have adapted for the last two centuries.
The industrial revolution was automation kicking into high gear and it didn't end labor.
Industry and economy adapted.