Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

What would Skynet do? One San Francisco official is pushing for a ‘robot tax’

What would Skynet do? One San Francisco official is pushing for a 'robot tax'

If a worker loses a job to a robot, who pays the city and state tax revenue that the formerly employed worker paid in? Right now, nobody does.

That’s where the idea of a "robot tax" comes in.

In an interview with Quartz earlier this year , Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates said he believes governments should tax companies’ use of robots. It’s an idea one San Francisco politician is now trying to advance to the next level."I think automation is a good thing," San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Jane Kim told CNBC’s "On the Money" in an […]

Will Basic Income Be Necessary as Automation Kicks in?

Will Basic Income Be Necessary as Automation Kicks in?

While a guaranteed minimum income (GMI) is popular in many societies, basic income has not yet taken proper hold as a system of welfare. Whereas GMI makes welfare transfers conditional on certain criteria (such as earning below the means of existence), basic income distinguishes itself by unconditionally transferring a set amount of wealth to all citizens of a country. Political Initiatives

Initiatives to debate and implement basic income started in the 1970s in Denmark and the Netherland. They spread into Germany and Britain and took a strong foothold in France. In 2013, a petition in Germany was deemed “unrealisable” […]

Unifor’s fight to secure jobs at Cami highlights the shift of work to Mexico under NAFTA

Unifor’s fight to secure jobs at Cami highlights the shift of work to Mexico under NAFTA

Striking Cami workers march Friday in a rally outside the Ingersoll plant. As the dispute nears its fourth week, there’s no end in sight. GM Canada and Unifor remain “far apart,” says the union representing the 2,800 workers. The two sides are to resume bargaining on Tuesday. (BRUCE CHESSELL/Sentinel-Review) It’s a microcosm of a larger fight.

As the strike by 2,800 workers at Ingersoll’s Cami assembly plant nears its fourth week, the standoff underlines what’s happened to Canada’s auto industry under the North American Free Trade Agreement

(NAFTA) and why the stakes are so high, especially with a tough-talking Donald Trump […]

Rethinking The Robot Tax

Rethinking The Robot Tax

Last week, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced his latest plans to implement a “Robot Tax” in a bold effort to face the “challenge” of automation. This proposed tax is part of his larger plan to “urgently manage” the evolution of robotics and technology for the sake of society. And, while this may seem like a daring statement, it’s not exactly the first time it’s been proposed. A handful of other leaders around the globe, including Bill Gates and the South Korean government, have quite recently raised similar points. But when broken down, is this hostility towards the evolution of […]

How Is Automation Impacting the Job Market Right Now?

How Is Automation Impacting the Job Market Right Now?

Robots are coming to take your job. That has been a concept that the media has covered extensively , sometimes presenting a world in which automation benefits mankind, and sometimes offering up visions of what could go wrong in Terminator or Battlestar Galactica fashion.

And while robots are not yet (as far as we know) planning to rise up and overthrow humanity, visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk has expressed his fears that we are headed down that path. The Tesla CEO believes that artificial intelligence (AI), a technology key to driving automation, could start the next world war.

That type of warning […]

The Pound’s Shot at Redemption: The UK’s Strong Labour Market

The Pound's Shot at Redemption: The UK's Strong Labour Market

Sterling really should be higher – and could indeed go higher – if central banks push forward a newfound trend of focussing on labour markets.

Central bankers are basing their decisions on the strength of the labour market more than inflation, argues a note by Bank of America Merril Lynch .

Recent hawkish rhetoric from central banks in England, Sweden, Norway, Canada and Japan, illustrates the point, as it has been driven largely by extremely low unemployment levels, with little regard given for the equally low inflation levels coexisting in many of these economies."G10 Central Banks have started ignoring […]

AUSTRALIA: Alfred Deakin Institute Policy Forum – The Future of Work and Basic Income Options for Australia

AUSTRALIA: Alfred Deakin Institute Policy Forum – The Future of Work and Basic Income Options for Australia

Jon Altman and Eva Cox. Credit to: Alfred Deakin Institute (Deakin University, Melbourne)

The Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, hosted a forum on the 17th and 18th August discussing the concept of a universal basic income.

Workshop co-convenor Jon Altman (Deakin University and ANU) suggested that part of the impetus for the workshop was the sense that discussion of UBI in Australia was not as advanced as it was in other countries. As evidence of this he cited the comment made by Chris Bowen (Shadow Treasurer for the Labor party), who said that UBI was “a […]

Corbyn’s robot tax would halt vital life-changing innovation

Corbyn’s robot tax would halt vital life-changing innovation

The idea that developers of advanced technologies are not ‘sharing the benefits with society’ is just plain wrong (Source: Getty) The fear of change is nothing new. Charlie Chaplin’s classic film Modern Times – one of the last silent films of the era – is perhaps the most famous critique of technology and its perceived impact on modern society.

When the film was produced in 1936, Chaplin wasn’t alone in his fear of how a mechanised world would change lives and, indeed, the world as he knew it.

When Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the Labour conference last week, his response to […]

100 Women: Who’s going to lose out from automation?

100 Women: Who's going to lose out from automation?

Virtual waiters and waitresses, self-service checkouts and robot orchestra conductors: love it or hate it, automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are here to stay. But will these technological advances – be it in the office or the factory – affect the working life of men and women equally?

While there is debate about the benefits of automation in the world of work, there is no escaping the fact that more robots and artificial intelligence means more jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths, known as the Stem group.

In the US, home to some of the world’s largest technology firms, growth […]

An automation manifesto

An automation manifesto

Automation has the ability to transform society for the better. Every day I see the powerful impact it can have, revolutionising the way business and everyday tasks are done, saving time, money and delivering game-changing economics. It will increase productivity, which is essential for future growth and prosperity. It will also see the end of employees spending time on mundane, repetitive tasks, instead freeing up time to engage in more meaningful and enjoyable strategic or creative work.

Whether it’s a new report warning of the risks to employment or one saying exactly the reverse, there is currently an almost daily […]