Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Opinion: Trump sells snake oil to Rust Belt

Opinion: Trump sells snake oil to Rust Belt

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Washington — Donald Trump boasts that his “America First” trade and economic policies are bringing well-paid manufacturing jobs back to America. That’s probably his biggest “deliverable” to Trump voters. But is this claim true?

Trump won the presidency partly because he voiced the anger of American workers about lost jobs and stagnant wages. But in the process, he fundamentally misled the country by claiming that trade is the major cause of job losses, and that renegotiating trade agreements would save the middle class.What Trump is offering is a palliative that has raised false hopes. He implies that a few good […]

Davos — the rich are worried

Davos — the rich are worried

Jordan Times (MENAFN – Jordan Times) I can’t wait to see how the incoming administration deals with AI,’ said US Secretary of State John Kerry in a less-than-gracious reference to the fact that the Trump team has not got a clue about the real driving force in the changing world economy.

What was striking was that Kerry did not have to clarify his remark for the 2,000 ‘global leaders’ — politicians, bureaucrats, business representatives and public intellectuals — who are in the Swiss alpine town of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum. They all know what he is talking […]

The rise of automated labour calls for a new approach to welfare

The rise of automated labour calls for a new approach to welfare

In January 2017, Finland launched a nation-wide experiment in which 2,000 unemployed Finns will receive €560 per month and will continue to do so even if they find a job. The same month, councils in Fife and Glasgow expressed an interest in creating pilot schemes to test the viability of a universal basic income. The ideal of a universal income is that every adult, whether they are employed or not, should be paid a basic monthly payment from the state. It cannot come soon enough.

Part of the rationale behind such schemes is the looming prospect of job losses due […]

Guest column: Times-Union editorial on work ignores two major trends, automation and globalization

The editors of The Florida Times-Union recently analyzed the alarming increase in joblessness among American men since 1965.

But they omit two very important economic trends that have affected U.S. employment over the same period: automation and globalization. Instead of providing a critical analysis of the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. or an acknowledgment of the continuing decimation of the middle class, the editors provide an unhelpful moral critique of men who don’t work.

Readers deserve a more far-reaching analysis of the American employment landscape — which has permanently changed — in order to begin thinking about solutions to […]

Dutch voter anger about immigrants, yes, but anger about robots, too

Dutch voter anger about immigrants, yes, but anger about robots, too

From the towering offices of Rotterdam’s port authority, you can watch the never-ending stream of barges begin their river journeys to the Rhine and points across Europe, carrying everything from Chinese microwave ovens to iron ore from Brazil.

Rotterdam boasts Europe’s biggest port, which depends on the globalised economy for its success and 130,000 jobs. Yet this North Sea gateway to the world is also the birthplace of an anti-globalization, anti-immigrant and anti-Islam movement that is on course to place first in Dutch elections on March 15.

The appeal of its current leader, the peroxide blond Geert Wilders, seems a paradox […]

Automation, not foreign trade, kills American jobs

Automation, not foreign trade, kills American jobs

At the unveiling of the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, the President doubled down on his buy American, hire American campaign promise. Veuer’s Nick Cardona (@nickcardona93) has the story. Buzz60 Donald Trump boasts that his "America First" trade and economic policies are bringing well-paid manufacturing jobs back to America. That’s probably his biggest "deliverable" to Trump voters. But is this claim true?

Trump won the presidency partly because he voiced the anger of American workers about lost jobs and stagnant wages. But in the process, he fundamentally misled the country by claiming that trade is the major cause of job losses, and […]

Oilfield automation may slow job growth — but it doesn’t have to

Oilfield automation may slow job growth — but it doesn't have to

More competitive companies could expand faster and hire more people.

Last week, I wrote about the race to create a digital platform to help drillers deploy and track trucks and other equipment to service their wells in the most efficient possible way, with shorter trips and seamless billing — an Uber for the oilfield, if you will.

Efficiency, of course, means making things cost less. Cost comes in two varieties: Capital and labor. So which one is being cut?In the case of software programs for running oilfield operations, the answer is theoretically both. Service providers will need fewer trucks […]

Robots and tax: paying the freight

Robots and tax: paying the freight

Adrian Turner: It is time for a serious national conversation about automation … Australia does not need a robot tax – but it should take automation and the erosion of traditional jobs a whole lot more seriously.

CSIRO’s Data61 chief executive Adrian Turner has weighed into the discussion about whether companies replacing human workers with robots should be forced to pay a tax for the privilege, arguing that it is neither sensible nor feasible.

It’s a position at odds with that of Microsoft founder and technology advisor Bill Gates, who in a recent interview with the online site Quartz, said that […]

Trade, Automation, Cheap Wages Abroad Conspire to Alter U.S. Economic Landscape

Trade, Automation, Cheap Wages Abroad Conspire to Alter U.S. Economic Landscape

President Trump has blamed countries such as China and Mexico for the erosion of U.S. manufacturing jobs, but the industry has been steadily declining for decades. Photo: Tama66 / Pixabay

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump struck a protectionist, populist tone that appealed to Rust Belt blue-collar workers but instilled fear among multinational companies, foreign governments and free trade advocates. Those fears were apparently well founded.

Since assuming office, Trump has wasted no time railing against the perils of globalization. He’s threatened to slap punitive tariffs on key economic partners such as Mexico and China, named and shamed companies that outsource […]

Nowhere to Go: Automation, Then and Now

Nowhere to Go: Automation, Then and Now

Part One

It is in this serious light that we have to look at the question of the growing army of the unemployed. We have to stop looking for solutions in pump-priming, featherbedding, public works, war contracts, and all the other gimmicks that are always being proposed by labor leaders and well-meaning liberals.

– James Boggs, The American Revolution In 1963, James Boggs, a black autoworker employed for over two decades at a Chrysler plant in Detroit, published a short book focused on the nefarious effects of automation on class struggle in the United States. The story told in The American […]