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The Debate About Job Loss from Automation Is Missing the Point

The Debate About Job Loss from Automation Is Missing the Point

gualtiero boffi / Shutterstock.com Nearly every day, we see another news story or think piece about how automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence will change the way we work. Some of these stories are frightening in that they predict significant job losses associated with these new technologies. On Thursday, for example, Quartz’ s Michael Coren warned that the development of self-driving vehicles may happen so fast that it upends the trucking industry: The US trucking industry has few dominant players, and most survive on thin margins, so there is little appetite for splashing out on new technology. That implies new […]

How robots are going to change our world for the better

How robots are going to change our world for the better

How artificial intelligence and robots will radically transform the global economy, writes Kevin Maney Humanoid robot bartender "Carl" prepares a drink for a guest at the Robots Bar and Lounge in the eastern German town of Ilmenau. NEXT time you stop for petrol at a self-serve pump, say hello to the robot in front of you. Its life story can tell you a lot about the robot economy roaring toward us like an EF5 tornado on the prairie.

Yeah, your automated petrol pump killed a lot of jobs over the years, but its biography might give you hope that the […]

Facebook co-founder’s new $10 million initiative to test if cash handouts will help fix America

Facebook co-founder's new $10 million initiative to test if cash handouts will help fix America

Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes, Harvard Law School and Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Professor Yochai Benkler, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and Alaska State Senator Bill Wielechowski may not agree on everything, but they agree on this: Cash handouts have the potential to help Americans and the American economy.

Given the challenges posed by automation and globalization, which are replacing workers and leading to stagnating wages, direct payments to workers may, in fact, be the only solution.

More than 100 organizers, activists, researchers and technologists, including Y Combinator President Sam Altman and former President of the Sierra Club […]

At Boeing’s 777X Wing Factory, Robots Get Big Jobs

As the first 110-footlong wing skin panel for Boeing’s new 777X jet moved slowly across a mammoth new factory building one recent morning, a small crew walked alongside, watching for any possibility of an expensive collision.

The "spotters" escorted the panel’s bright-orange transport platform as it followed invisible tracks embedded in the concrete floor and slid with a tight fit into the big cylindrical autoclave where the part would bake to hardness.

Until the automated system for moving these big wing parts is proved, "we do have four people watching it," said Darrell Chic, acting director of 777X wing fabrication. "But […]

Automation does not cause unemployment

But again, you just agreed that the amount of work is not static. Therefore, more workers can create more production then they will continue to make more production. By process of diminishing marginal value, we can see at what point we would no longer higher workers. As long as the rate of return on the worker is higher than the cost of the worker, the business with continue to higher workers. Furthermore, I am not saying that low skilled work will become ever more plentiful. On the contrary, other work will increase in plentiful amounts greater than the work […]

America’s 25 Dying Industries

Valued at nearly $20 trillion, the U.S. economy is the largest in the world. Maintaining a competitive edge necessitates remaining diversified and dynamic. While this means that some U.S. industries thrive, others inevitably decline or are rendered obsolete.

As certain industries fade, so do hundreds of thousands of American jobs. 24/7 Wall St. analyzed employment figures from 2006 to 2015 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine the 25 fastest dying industries. Employment in each industry on this list declined by at least 43%, and in the top two by at least 80%.

At least one of three broad factors […]

Newsnight – basic income

Newsnight – basic income

07.12.15

Finland considers basic income to reform welfare system.

The Finnish government is considering a pilot project that would see the state pay people a basic income regardless of whether they work.The details of how much the basic income might be and who would be eligible for it are yet to be announced, but already there is widespread interest in how it might work.Prime Minister Juha Sipila has praised the idea. “For me, a basic income means simplifying the social security system,” he said.The scheme is of particular interest to people without jobs. In Finland, they now number 280,000 – 10% […]

Automation does not cause unemployment

Lump of Labour fallacy. If employees are more productive then a company will hire more, as more workers will be worth more than the cost of having them there.

It is incredibly difficult to predict new jobs. When the World Wide Web was founded, we didn’t realise there would be jobs in the Mobile App Development service because of it, or search engine optimisers, or the many magnitude of jobs created. It is probable many jobs we see to day may be rendered null, who knows the magnitude of the jobs created. If we go by historic standards, it always […]

China isn’t the only reason Americans are losing manufacturing jobs

China isn't the only reason Americans are losing manufacturing jobs

Protectionism has grown quite popular as American workers continue to worry about losing jobs to other countries.

And politicians zeroed in on these anxieties as they vied for the top job in the White House during the 2016 campaign. President-elect Donald Trump in particular made the debate over free trade one of the central topics of his campaign after criticizing China, Mexico, and Japan.

Although there is empirical evidence suggesting that increased trade with China actually did cause some big problems for American workers, it’s not the only factor that has affected the manufacturing sector. Automation has also been a contributor.In […]

Princeton students, faculty walk out on Charles Murray’s talk in ‘silent protest’

Princeton students, faculty walk out on Charles Murray’s talk in ‘silent protest’

Dozens of Princeton University students and faculty walked out of a talk set to be delivered by social scientist Charles Murray on Thursday shortly after he was introduced.

The demonstration was organized by Carolyn Rouse, who chairs the Anthropology Department at the Ivy League college. Ms. Rouse passed out fliers prior to the event encouraging people to show up and walk out of the lecture, accusing Mr. Murray of promoting “racism and classism” in his research.

“Join us today in a silent protest against the normalization of racism and classism in academia,” Ms. Rouse, who also directs the Program in African […]