Tag: consumer

Enemy is poor education, not mechanisation

Enemy is poor education, not mechanisation

THE replacement of people in the workplace by machines has been feared throughout history. During the Industrial Revolution, workers known as Luddites attacked and destroyed the machines that threatened their jobs.

Yet while mechanisation did bring great hardship to the cottage weavers and spinners, fears of widespread unemployment proved unfounded. Mechanisation brought about rising prosperity and demand for new products and services. Lower production costs meant lower prices, which generated greater demand for goods previously affordable only to the wealthy.

As a result, the new machines set the scene for massive increases in jobs, wages and prosperity unequalled in history.Today, the […]

Global warming and robotics: the two biggest threats to the ‘Asian Century’

Global warming and robotics: the two biggest threats to the ‘Asian Century’

A beer assembly line inside a brewery in Shenyang, Liaoning province. Such automation could keep factory jobs and provide more high-end jobs. But as China moves up the value chain – and no longer has an endless supply of cheap labour – India and the ASEAN member countries are expected to fill its role. Photo: Reuters We are living in the “Asian Century”, so called because by 2050, the region is projected to be as wealthy as Europe on a per capita basis, and hold a dominant share of global economic output.

But what if it turns out to be […]

Should you hire robots?

Should you hire robots?

With an increasing focus on automation through robotics, digitisation and even artificial intelligence , humanity is in the midst of a new industrial revolution.

In the next decade more than 40 per cent of the jobs we know today will no longer exist according to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, replaced by jobs we can’t even imagine yet. A quick look at LinkedIn tells us the majority of roles being advertised have the word ‘ digital’ in the role title.

So how should business leaders respond to the questions and concerns of team members? At ANZ, the most frequently […]

How trade impacts American jobs: Research roundup

How trade impacts American jobs: Research roundup

Container ship (Photo: Pixabay) Economic dogma asserts that free trade improves everyone’s wellbeing. For decades, both major American political parties have hailed free trade with other countries as critical to voters’ well being. But candidates in the 2016 presidential election have raised piercing questions about the benefits, with both major party nominees distancing themselves from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pact with bilateral support that was seven-years-in-the-making. The Republican nominee is even proposing to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ), a signature policy of the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

Rapidly increasing […]

CMV: Automation will continue to increase productivity and minimize employment, but the U.S. will NEVER see anything like a basic income.

CMV: Automation will continue to increase productivity and minimize employment, but the U.S. will NEVER see anything like a basic income.

Hi /u/SajunBecker . I’m wrapping up my master’s degree this year and have taken a decent number of courses pertaining to labor economics and macroeconomic development. Thus, if you’d like any more detail than what I’m providing (going to try to keep things short, for everyone’s sake), please feel free to ask! 🙂

So, basically there’s a few things going on here. First, as a few others have already pointed out, we do technically have some forms of pseudo-basic income (social security, AFDC, Food Stamps, subsidized housing programs, etc. are all efforts to combat unemployment and poverty and thus efforts […]

Automation and Jobs for People

Automation and Jobs for People
Since the introduction of the first machines for weaving cloth and other automated processes during the Industrial Revolution, manufacturers have relied more on machines and less on humans for labor. Automation increased during the latter half of the 20th century, as computers were combined with machines to produce highly sophisticated robotic systems and other automated processes. Improvements in communication and information technology moved automation from strictly manufacturing processes to processes that involved more intellectual work. The result has been increased productivity and lower human resource costs for manufacturers and the elimination of some categories […]

Only Humans Need Apply: Job Prospects Following Advances in AI

This post was authored primarily by CDT Summer 2016 intern Elaine Chou . “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” Last week, in response to a Request for Information from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, CDT submitted a report on “Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence” (“AI”). Our comments focused on how the government can reduce inequality in the workforce and promote societal progress as AI advances. CDT believes in the power of AI, and suggests policy improvements […]

This expert thinks robots aren’t going to destroy many jobs. And that’s a problem.

This expert thinks robots aren't going to destroy many jobs. And that's a problem.

Javier Zarracina

If you follow news out of Silicon Valley, it’s easy to get the impression that we’re living through an era of unprecedented technological change. The modern smartphone is less than a decade old, yet it has already become ubiquitous in American society and allowed Apple and Google to become two of the most valuable companies in the world. And companies like Uber and Airbnb are bringing the internet revolution to industries as diverse as taxicabs and hotels.

Yet it’s hard to find evidence of rapid progress in the nation’s economic statistics. To the contrary, after the productivity of American […]

The Workplace of the Future

The Workplace of the Future

The Barbarian Group’s ‘Superdesk’ | Source: Courtesy There are few sectors of the economy that offer as wide and interesting a range of career opportunities as fashion. For more careers content or to browse current job opportunities in fashion, visit BoF Careers .

LONDON, United Kingdom — The way we work is changing. Many of us have experienced working in big offices, in cubicles, under fluorescent lighting and at the same desk and computer every day. However, several key trends are leading up to a shift in the way people communicate, collaborate and work.

Economic shifts are redistributing power, […]

Trump’s No. 1 lie about Mexico and U.S. jobs

OXFORD, Great Britain

One of Donald Trump’s most misleading campaign themes is that Mexico is stealing U.S. jobs, and that Washington should re-negotiate or scrap its free trade deal with Mexico to prevent even larger job losses. In reality, what’s threatening U.S. jobs isn’t Mexico, but automation.

I thought a lot about Trump’s deceptive trade proposals this week while visiting Oxford University to interview the co-author of a much-cited Oxford-Martin School study on the future of employment . The study says 47 percent of U.S. jobs are at risk of disappearing over the next twenty years because of automation.Carl Benedikt Frey […]