Tag: consumer

In Our View: Focus on Future Jobs

In Our View: Focus on Future Jobs

In striving to make America great again, President Trump is wise to focus upon jobs. His desire to bolster manufacturing in the United States and create a climate in which employment blossoms resonated with millions of voters across the country and played a key role in landing him in the White House.

But while Trump’s goal is lofty, the reality of modern industry requires a more thoughtful and nuanced approach than the one he has thus far embraced. Trump and his administration must prepare for the game-changing role that automation will continue to play in the economy.

This was driven home […]

The Robot Economy: Ready or Not, Here It Comes

The Robot Economy: Ready or Not, Here It Comes

Duc Tran, an automation engineer, observes the fully autonomous robotic truck loader during a test at the Wynright Robotics facility in Arlington, Texas, July 18, 2012. (Photo: Brandon Thibodeaux / The New York Times) September 17 changed everything.

On that day in 2013, Oxford University published an innocuously titled academic paper by two mostly unknown economists. But " The Future of Employment " wasn’t just another number-crunching exercise in opacity by a couple of dreary scientists. No, their bombshell report portended a coming robot apocalypse that could change the nature of human civilization, and perhaps even human beings themselves.

Thankfully, the […]

Why aren’t robots boosting economic productivity?

Why aren’t robots boosting economic productivity?

Robots are making inroads in the modern workplace, but the promised benefits aren’t materializing. The robot revolution is real, but the effects are doubly disappointing. Not only are they displacing workers and taking manufacturing jobs, somehow robots are failing to boost output or make the economy more productive.

When, for instance, an auto manufacturer installs cutting-edge robotic arms, two things are supposed to happen. First, the company becomes more efficient, allowing consumers everywhere to reap the benefit of less-expensive, robot-welded cars. Second, while they might lay off some assembly line workers, in theory those workers could move into high-demand jobs […]

Robot city, Philly: How will low-wage workers survive?

Robot city, Philly: How will low-wage workers survive?

Shopping Cart icon Buy Photo Jean Kendrick attended a Philly Tech Week panel discussion titled "Robot City: Automation and Low-Wage Workers" on May 4. She is the director of career services at the Urban League of Philadelphia. (Staff/Jane M. Von Bergen) It’s fine to talk about labor theory and the workforce of the future. Meanwhile, though, what’s going to happen to the parking garage attendant who loses her job when the garage installs an automatic ticket-taker?

That was on Jean Kendrick’s mind Thursday as she listened to panelists at a Philly Tech Week event titled "Robot City: Automation and Low […]

15 Jobs That Will Be Gone in 10 Years

15 Jobs That Will Be Gone in 10 Years

Certain jobs are going extinct. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Pog designer. Beanie Baby trader. Lamplighter. Elevator operator. These are all jobs that have disappeared in recent times.

Things change — be it from technology advancing, an influx of cheap labor due to globalization or shifting immigration patterns , or even just a change in consumer tastes. Yet, despite the fact that many industries and jobs seemed doomed to the dust bins of history, many Americans remain stuck in denial — even when we should be looking forward to automation and robots taking the reins from humans .

Businesses come and go. […]

A top Silicon Valley investor predicts robots will change our economy ‘on the order of the Industrial Revolution’

A top Silicon Valley investor predicts robots will change our economy 'on the order of the Industrial Revolution'

The robots are coming. Chris McGrath/Getty In San Francisco, you can order food from your favorite taqueria and have it delivered by a self-driving bot , or grab a latté from a robot-powered coffee kiosk.

Robots are joining the workforce in droves, and their arrival threatens to take away a number of jobs held by humans.

Sam Altman, president of startup accelerator Y Combinator, recently warned a crowd at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club that virtually no jobs are safe. Altman, who founded a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company, OpenAI, with Elon Musk, called on the tech industry to find solutions for […]

MORADI | Automation Nation

MORADI | Automation Nation

Ah, springtime. The sun is (relatively) out, flowers are blooming, birds are singing and nearly half of American jobs are at risk of being completely eradicated due to automation.

Automation is hitting the U.S. job market as suddenly as that segue. An oft-cited 2013 study by economist Carl Frey and computer scientist Michael Osborne estimates that 47 percent of American employment is at high risk of being entirely automated. The most automatable jobs are fairly obvious: repetitive manufacturing jobs, telemarketing and occupations that deal mostly with clerking top the list. Some jobs, though, are surprisingly automatable: models and real-estate brokers, […]

Are you ready for the ‘robocalypse’ coming to manufacturing?

Are you ready for the ‘robocalypse’ coming to manufacturing?

0

Share this article Automation is the newest buzzword on everyone’s lips when it comes to manufacturing. Is it reliable? Will it really replace humans effectively? Will there be a pushback from consumers?

Apprehensive questions abound, but many are born out of misunderstanding the spread of automation, or overly-optimistic forecasts over how quickly "the turnover" will actually eclipse flesh-and-blood workers.The idea of using machinery to increase efficiency is hardly new — the Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in America’s history, after all — but advances like nuanced sensors and AI are unveiling capabilities we couldn’t have dreamed about […]

Opinion: Can humans compete with technology in the workplace?

Opinion: Can humans compete with technology in the workplace?

Since the Industrial Revolution, the fear of machinery and technology destroying jobs has gripped society.

At the turn of the 20th century, automobiles brought forth a new era of transportation, simultaneously rendering blacksmiths and wainwrights obsolete. The combine harvester, also an invention of the early 20th century, obliterated demand for agricultural human capital in the U.S.

The examples are endless, but these two exhibit a larger point: An underlying dread of technological advancement has persisted throughout centuries, and the sense of panic remains.Robotics and artificial intelligence threaten to render human labor an artifact of some inefficient past — a semblance of […]

Grover Norquist: Bill Gates’ robot tax is ‘stupid’

Grover Norquist: Bill Gates' robot tax is 'stupid'

Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist is not a fan of the "robot tax" recently proposed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

"A robot tax is a particularly stupid tax. It is a tax on productivity — a tax on growth," Grover told the Washington Examiner in an email exchange.

Gates made the suggestion during an interview with Quartz in February, in response to the number of jobs being lost to automation. "If a human worker does $50,000 of work in a factory, that income is taxed," he said. "If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think that we’d tax […]