Tag: academic

When it Comes to ‘Saving Globalization’ World Leaders are Still Missing the Point

When it Comes to ‘Saving Globalization’ World Leaders are Still Missing the Point

“Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it,” or so Karl Marx once wrote. As trade liberalization and globalization more broadly are called into question, G20 leaders could do with both interpreting the situation and changing it.

It is not an easy task for the G20, which is a diverse group of developed and emerging economies, accounting for around 80% of GDP. In spite of their great success in launching a trade and investment working group and agreeing on guiding principles of investment policy-making, G20 leaders failed to address the emergence of […]

Trump’s Job Promise – Can He Build A Wall Around Automation?

Trump’s Job Promise - Can He Build A Wall Around Automation?

Moving through the 21st Century, automation, not aliens, has been the driving force in unemployment. Trump waived his magic “wall” wand over his rust-belt Cinderellas that eked out an electoral win with fears of minorities and foreigners, but can he build a wall around job automation? Will jobs be the measure of human worth in this century and beyond when machines will do more, faster, and better?

Trump squeaked into office by wooing white blue collar voters in the former industrial states and in coal country with the idea that he would kick start their manual labor-intensive economies. Factory jobs.

Even […]

Trump’s Job Promise – Can He Build A Wall Around Automation?

Moving through the 21st Century, automation, not aliens, has been the driving force in unemployment. Trump waived his magic “wall” wand over his rust-belt Cinderellas that eked out an electoral win with fears of minorities and foreigners, but can he build a wall around job automation? Will jobs be the measure of human worth in this century and beyond when machines will do more, faster, and better?

Trump squeaked into office by wooing white blue collar voters in the former industrial states and in coal country with the idea that he would kick start their manual labor-intensive economies. Factory jobs.

Even […]

We're Frogs and Automation is Boiling Water

We're Frogs and Automation is Boiling Water

If you put water on the stove and heat it up, it will at first just get hotter and hotter. You may then conclude that heating water results only in hotter water. But at some point everything changes – the water starts to boil, turning from hot liquid into steam. Physicists call this a “phase transition.”

Automation , driven by technological progress, has been increasing inexorably for the past several decades. Two schools of economic thinking have for many years been engaged in a debate about the potential effects of automation on jobs, employment and human activity: will new […]

We’re Frogs and Automation is Boiling Water

We're Frogs and Automation is Boiling Water

If you put water on the stove and heat it up, it will at first just get hotter and hotter. You may then conclude that heating water results only in hotter water. But at some point everything changes – the water starts to boil, turning from hot liquid into steam. Physicists call this a “phase transition.”

Automation , driven by technological progress, has been increasing inexorably for the past several decades. Two schools of economic thinking have for many years been engaged in a debate about the potential effects of automation on jobs, employment and human activity: will new […]

Automation And The Future Of Work

Automation And The Future Of Work

Shutterstock There is a strange dichotomy at the moment surrounding the future of work. In public, political movements throughout the western world have seen populist campaigners railing against the threat to jobs from low-wage migrants entering a country, and outsourcing to low-cost regions by multinationals.

What hasn’t really been touched on is the impact automation might have on jobs in the future. What began with the famous study from Oxford University academics Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne back in 2013, which highlighted the huge number of white and blue collar jobs that could be disrupted by automation, has progressed […]

WSJ’s Daily Shot: Is Dr. Copper Telling Us -2-

WSJ’s Daily Shot: Is Dr. Copper Telling Us -2-

Shutterstock photo Finally, here is a letter to the editor regarding automation hurting manufacturing jobs in the United States. Send us your thoughts on the topic.

I have a comment on an item you report today:

"3. Speaking of manufacturing, here is a chart comparing industrial production with manufacturing employment. Economists continue to point out that it’s automation, not trade, that is responsible for much of the job losses in the sector. The trend is expected to gain momentum going forward. It’s hard to "build a wall" to keep the robots from coming in."Yes, I’m for the guy who wants to […]

Could Automation Actually Create More Jobs Than It Destroys?

Could Automation Actually Create More Jobs Than It Destroys?

The short answer is yes, by creating more demand through growth in those fields where automation enhances human capabilities, not just replaces them. But with the added proviso, ‘eventually.’
The question is whether society is willing to invest in programs that ease the transition and thus improve the short term economics. JL

The Economist reports : Rather than destroying jobs, automation redefines them in ways that boost demand. Employment grew faster in occupations ( graphic design) that made more use of computers: as automation sped up a job, workers do the other parts better. More computer-intensive jobs displaced less […]

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.

Like […]

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 […]