Are jobs obsolete?

Are jobs obsolete?

Our problem is not that we don't have enough stuff -- it's that we don't have enough ways for people to work and prove that they deserve this stuff.

A really radical concept.

I often wondered how we could have an over abundance of food while still needing food pantries or why we demolish brand new homes in suburbia when we have homeless shelters overflowing all over the country.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, there is enough food produced to provide everyone in the world with 2,720 kilocalories per person per day. And that's even after America disposes of thousands of tons of crop and dairy just to keep market prices high. Meanwhile, American banks overloaded with foreclosed properties are demolishing vacant dwellings to get the empty houses off their books.

Yes jobs are; and if not have been obsolete because they're either all overseas or are being worked by your friendly neighbourhood illegal immigrant.[

Do you know jacque fresco? He got alot to say on this matter, try watching some youtube videos about him. According to him, we got the technology today that we don´t actually need to work at all, only very few volounteers would suffice. The vast majority could do whatever they want, explore, invent, recreate, etc.

reply to post by NeoVain


Interesting, sounds like a popular theme in science fiction. I suppose I should be looking this up for myself, but out of sloth I'll ask you instead.

Would police, fire, military, doctors, be among the volunteers? Many service industry jobs seem like they would be difficult to automate. Are there plans for beauty salons, law offices, bars and restaurants, craft shops, etc.?

Some people (maybe most?) seem to want the newest and best. I drive around in a rusted old Chevy Lumina. Will I now have a Shelby or a Jaguar? Will people be jealous and angry if they can't have the best and latest immediately?

Just curious.

jobs are not something you can depend on anymore.You can be laid off for any reason no matter how hard you work. Even after 20 years!

Originally posted by links234
Are jobs obsolete?

As long as there are movies, TV, streaming www, cable etc. my job will be secure. Competitive...yes very!
But you get what you pay for.

Want to be successful in the coming years? Learn to speak Chinese and get an MBA.

With a lot of businesses closing and jobs going overseas, we're pretty much screwed. I've applied to hundreds of jobs in the past year with no success. Even applied to Burger King, because I'm desperate. Can't even get a job there. There are so many people out of work its not even funny. When someone posts a job, either in the paper or on the internet they get so many job applications they can't go through them all. So they just start sending rejection letters. It makes me as an American very upset that our people have to go without work, while the companies that were once here flourish overseas. On top of all of it, the Illegals and those on welfare that really don't need it. But that's our Country! Thank our Government for the situation we are in. As they rake in their paychecks and spit on the rest of us.

reply to post by charles1952


That is usually the first people ask him. Just look him up, he got all the bases covered, trust me. Granted, a new way of thinking is required, which you will soon understand.

I'm not sure "job" is the right word. It implies compensation for the production of goods & services. If we employed our skills to ends beneficial to humanity, and did so voluntarily without expectation of reciprocity, then yes, jobs would be obsolete.

Let's take one example you brought up.

Food...so much is produced no one should go hungry.

How do you distribute the food? Trucks...rail lines?

If by truck, the truck driver has a job. The mechanic and maintainance guy has a job. The router/ scheduler has a job. The loaders have a job. The forklift guy has a job. The mechanic for the forklifts has a job. The pallet makers to load stuff on, has a job. the shipper for the pallets has a job. The guy that makes the boxes for shipping and storage has a job. The distibutor for the boxes has a job.

The guys working the dock at recieving have a job. The reciever has a job. The foreman/ supervisor directing the flow and storage and managing the laborforce has a job. The guys that make the refridgerator uits has a job. The maintainance guy for the reefer and refridgerator units has a job.

And so on and so forth ad nauseum.

Not to mention the farmer aspect of food production.

Yes, as long as things are made and shipped and consumed...there will be jobs. You may not like them, but there will be jobs.

Originally posted by AlreadyGone
How do you distribute the food? Trucks...rail lines?

If by truck, the truck driver has a job. The mechanic and maintainance guy has a job. The router/ scheduler has a job. The loaders have a job. The forklift guy has a job. The mechanic for the forklifts has a job. The pallet makers to load stuff on, has a job. the shipper for the pallets has a job. The guy that makes the boxes for shipping and storage has a job. The distibutor for the boxes has a job.

Yes, as long as things are made and shipped and consumed...there will be jobs. You may not like them, but there will be jobs.

So then what this indicates to me is that we may be approaching a transitional period between the human-labor of the past, and the massive automation of the future. As you say, certain jobs still must be done by humans, but many are automated and that automation produces the same product without the need for human labor.

Any way you look at it, automation pushes us towards socialism and/or communism.

Perhaps the average citizen may not HAVE to work, but live at some base standard of living, their needs covered by and large through automation. And those who want to have a better life can do the jobs that still exist.

Isn't that SORT OF what we have now, though, with welfare? If you really think about it, it kind of is.

Anyway, we could sit around all day and postulate about capitalism vs. socialism and the role of automation in the economy of the future, but what we think doesn't matter. What matters is that corporations control everything and corporations demand that you and I will continue to be slaves, so that the elite can have the maximum amount of everything.

Maybe one day a robot can fence in goats and catch them when they have escaped beyond the fence....until then, there are too many variables and right now...a robot/ automaton can't handle the job.

Anybody that works runs into problems that a textbook/ robot would never even imagine...life does not fit into a neat little microchip or computer program.

A human can discern info and make a judgement call dealing with most any situation. Would a robot know that pineapple on pizza is good? And would a robot pizza maker be able to discern that even though it is good, most of his customers really don't like pineapple on their pizza. And would a robot know that it might be the brand of pineapple on his pizza that has resulted in a sales decline? Would a robot consider deep fried pizza?

Point is, life is a variable and some things work and some things don't. It is the ability of the human to be resillient and innovative and think outside the box that creates new opportunities... and new jobs.

I just reread your answer. You already have a percieved view that you are a slave. A slave to what?

Have you considered employing yourself? You are the man and since you work for the man, you would work for yourself.

Sure, there are fees and liscenses and taxes, some are just and some not so just, but they are there. You build that into the costs of things.

Unless you want to live in a hole in the woods undercover, you will have to pay someone for something, nothing is free.

Having been to a poor section of Mexico, some rules and taxes are good. Building codes are good to a degree. In Tizimin, anybody can build anything anywhere...and you can see the result when they have an earthquake and the resulting casualties. I know a man there that paid about $400 USD to get a permit to build. No one from the government or city ever came out to inspect or see what he was building. Being an ethical guy, he built it right...but just down the street are grovels that people live in.

Same with food and health regulations. Here we sometimes see them as punitive...not anymore...folks there sit on any street corner in any condition and sell any food all day long...with pretty much no sanitation standards... eat with caution down there...

Point is, there are taxes and fees and some...SOME... of them are actually good and worthwhile.

The only person you are a slave to is you. If you are going to succeed...you will. If you are going to fail...you will.

reply to post by AlreadyGone


I think you're missing it a little bit. A number of those jobs could be automated, particularly the rail line and scheduling jobs and forklift operations. Suddenly you have to lay off hundreds of people and employ only a dozen or so to maintain the computer systems. What do you do with the other hundreds of suddenly unemployed?

We're nearing a point in civilization where there won't be enough jobs for all of the people. We're going to reach 9 billion people soon, that is supposed to be the maximum amount that the planet, our entire infrastructure and economic models can handle before we start dying off by the millions.

Do we, as a collective, determine that there is enough food, shelter, clean water to go around that no one has to 'prove' they're worthy of these things through employment and the accumulation of money?

Currency has no value. It is a symbol of wealth, and power. It is obsolete, as are jobs TO MAKE MONEY.

Jobs, are not obsolete, but you should work in a field that inspires you, not to get by. So, for the most part, yes, jobs today are obsolete.