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Southern rail dispute reflects workers’ growing fears about rise of automation

Southern rail dispute reflects workers’ growing fears about rise of automation

Trains with a guard become driver-only trains, which then become driverless trains. That’s the fear underlying Aslef’s dispute with Southern railways and accounts for the rearguard action to prevent further job losses across the rail industry.

It’s not the only reason for the dispute. There is also scorn for Southern’s management, which has attacked drivers’ basic terms and conditions, and there is anger at transport secretary Chris Grayling’s anti-union stance. But, at its heart, the dispute is over the status and even the very existence of the job of train driver, which has been around for nigh on 200 years.

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Automation Won’t Create New Jobs Like Technology Did In The Past

Automation Won't Create New Jobs Like Technology Did In The Past

(Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Westfield) “Increased productivity leads to more wealth, cheaper goods, greater spending power and ultimately, more jobs ,” said the Wall Street Journal in the latest entry in the counterpoint to articles declaring the end of work.

This essentially is the problem with calls to put aside worry about automation. They sit on an assumption that, somehow, something will come along to save the day, even though no one has the slightest idea of what it might be. Call it the Magical Job Savior, the inexorable and unstoppable unforeseen something that increases the number of jobs even as technology eliminates them but somehow enables the rescue.

Full Post at www.forbes.com

CNN Host’s Attempt to Explain the U.S. Economy Was So Bad I Started Yelling at the TV

CNN Host's Attempt to Explain the U.S. Economy Was So Bad I Started Yelling at the TV

Young technician checking solar panels on factory roof Photo Credit: zstock/Shutterstock Honestly, I don’t usually talk back to the TV. But I couldn’t contain myself during Poppy Harlow’s December 10 interview with John Feltner, the United Steelworkers vice president of the Rexnord local union where 300 jobs are moving from Indianapolis to Mexico.

In discussing the move, Harlow twice resorted to the much repeated trope that the loss of American manufacturing jobs is really about automation and technology.

HARLOW: What is the number-one thing you would like to see the incoming administration do that you think will help people in […]

Research group recommends expansion of basic income experiment

Research group recommends expansion of basic income experiment

The research group working on the basic income experiment proposes its implementation in multiple stages. According to the group, this would be the most reliable way of learning more about the basic income. It would also enable the further development of study designs and provide the information needed to revamp the Finnish social security system to meet future needs.

The research group reviewing the basic income experiment submitted its final report to Pirkko Mattila, Minister of Social and Affairs and Health, on 16 December 2016. In its final report, the group no longer proposes a method of implementing the basic […]

Sheila Kennedy

Sheila Kennedy

The other day, I looked into a mirror and suddenly realized that my mother was looking back.

It sneaks up on you.

Most of us don’t notice the day-to-day changes in ourselves, or our environments, unless something triggers that recognition. That is especially true of the inexorable increase in automation–and it matters, because it is automation, far more than trade, that has eliminated so many American jobs. And that automation isn’t limited to spiffy robots on a factory floor; it is all around us.When I first started to drive, gas station attendants pumped my gas and cleaned my windshield. These days, […]

Why We Should be Talking About Universal Basic Income

Why We Should be Talking About Universal Basic Income

Imagine if the government gave every American adult $2,500 a month in real dollars (30K annually) for the rest of their lives – no strings attached. Seems crazy right?

Not so fast – this idea is known as Universal Basic Income (UBI). I believe UBI will be the solution to a myriad of economic problems we currently face. I have listed some things to consider when talking about UBI.

Benefits: Provides a social safety net for all Americans. This would eliminate homelessness and extreme poverty among the most vulnerable Americans.Addresses concerns from automation and technology significantly increasing structural unemployment. It […]

How robots will change the American workforce

How robots will change the American workforce

Let’s Make San Diego ‘Robot Valley’. Henrik Christensen, director of the Contextual Robotics Institute at UC San Diego discusses the affect of robots in the workpalce. Thirty of the world’s top scientists will meet at UC San Diego in February to discuss the toughest challenges in robotics and automation, including making driverless cars safe for a mass audience.

The researchers are being brought together by Henrik Christensen, the prominent Georgia Tech engineer who was hired in July to run UC San Diego’s young Contextual Robotics Institute.

Christensen said at the time, “I want to build a research institute that, ideally, will […]

Automation Doesn’t Always Kill Jobs. Sometimes, It Adds Them.

Automation Doesn't Always Kill Jobs. Sometimes, It Adds Them.

‘When the University of Maine at Augusta launched its first noncredit course for commercial drone pilots in October, the seats quickly filled up. Among the 37 students are a cattle rancher, a construction company executive, a photojournalist, and several realtors.

‘“We are a bit of a motley crew,” says Tom Abbott, project manager for the university’s drone pilot training center, who is also taking the course. When they finish in mid-December, the students can take a test for federal certification to operate commercial drones, which are now being used in trials for everything from inspecting Maine’s potato crops to delivering […]

Why Universal Basic Income can’t work on its own

Why Universal Basic Income can’t work on its own

In my last column, “How Trump Can Save American Democracy,” I wrote of the importance of finding creative, forward-looking solutions to the unemployment problem in America, specifically of rural Middle America, that has been most affected by economic decline and deindustrialization. I stressed that this is paramount to directing the course of American society towards positive change and calming the currents of nativism that have been arising. I suggested that if Trump is to succeed in fulfilling the unattended needs of his core constituency, he must not rely on bringing back industry or trying to create new jobs where […]

Nimai Mehta, “A universal basic income to step up economic reform”

Nimai Mehta, “A universal basic income to step up economic reform”

Universal basic income (UBI) has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in India –including from the national government, with the Chief Economic Adviser having announced that UBI will be examined as part of the country’s next Economic Survey .

Within the government, UBI tends to be viewed chiefly as a way to overcome the inefficiencies and corruption that plague existing programs of social welfare. Some academic economists, including Abhijit V. Banerjee (MIT) and Pranab Bardhan (UC-Berkeley), have also emphasized the efficiency of UBI in comparison to India’s current welfare state. CC BY 2.0 nevil zaveri One critic of this […]