Tag: consumer

The lure of “so-so technology,” and how to avoid it

The lure of “so-so technology,” and how to avoid it

Workers have long been disrupted by new technology, from typesetters giving way to automated printing processes to bank tellers and the rise of ATMs. Historically, new technology has led to greater productivity as displaced workers shift to new tasks —typesetters might become graphic layout artists, while bank tellers focus on more complicated banking services.

The current era of automation has been different, according to researchers. As new digital technologies become commonplace, productivity has stagnated and fears about unemployment have become widespread.

According to MIT professorand Boston University’s Pascual Restrepo part of the problem is what they call “so-so technologies”: advances that […]

Auto workers forced to accept their insecure fate

NEW DELHI: It’s mid-afternoon in Gurgaon. Lines of uniformed men are streaming into the Maruti plant, from nearby Mullahera village where they live, several to a cramped room. The colour of their uniform marks their status — permanent, casual, temporary (hired for six months at a time), and apprentice. While they all do similar work in various parts of the factory, this status makes all the difference to their income, security and prospects.

With production slowing across the , temporary workers are the first to go. Roughly a million jobs are reportedly at risk. “The companies with greater contractualisation have […]

Major threat to U.S. jobs today? It’s automation, not China

The adoption of technologies to let machines take over much of the work people do is just getting going.

LEE SCHAFER @LeeASchafer

Sometimes there can be sharp differences in a Democratic presidential debate, like when Sen. Elizabeth Warren turned a question about the threat of jobs lost to automation by insisting that bad trade rules are really to blame.Nonsense, responded lawyer and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who noted that driving trucks is the top job in 29 states. He’s got friends in California testing self-driving trucks right now. What will truck drivers and truck-stop staff do for work when the […]

Lawyers of the world: Robots aren’t replacing you–yet

Lawyers of the world: Robots aren't replacing you--yet

ArtificiaI intelligence (AI) may soon render many jobs obsolete. Remember how popular one-hour photo shops were in the 1980s and into the mid-1990s? That’s just the tip of the tech iceberg, as AI now seems to be gunning to take over the legal world.

The UK-based Law Society noted in a study earlier this year: "Over the longer term, the number of jobs in the legal services sector will be increasingly affected by automation of legal services functions. This could mean that by 2038 total employment in the sector could be 20% less than it would otherwise have been, with […]

FACT CHECK: Do Robots Or Trade Threaten American Workers More?

FACT CHECK: Do Robots Or Trade Threaten American Workers More?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and entrepreneur Andrew Yang talk during break in the Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by CNN/New York Times. Are robots stealing workers’ jobs? At last week’s Democratic presidential debate, CNN moderator Erin Burnett dove into the thorny issue.

"According to a recent study, about a quarter of American jobs could be lost to automation in just the next 10 years," she said, asking candidates how they would respond to this problem.

The question ultimately pitted two divergent worldviews against each other. One came from entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who has centered his campaign around what he perceives as […]

We Have the Tools and Technology to Work Less and Live Better

We Have the Tools and Technology to Work Less and Live Better

atwater kent assembly line In 1930, a year into the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes sat down to write about the economic possibilities of his grandchildren. Despite widespread gloom as the global economic order fell to its knees, the British economist remained upbeat, saying that the ‘prevailing world depression … blind[s] us to what is going on under the surface’. In his essay, he predicted that in 100 years’ time, ie 2030, society would have advanced so far that we would barely need to work. The main problem confronting countries such as Britain and the United States would be […]

Automation and AI: Implications for African Development Prospects?

Automation and AI: Implications for African Development Prospects?

Introduction

Now that computers are capable of taking the jobs that require brain as well as brawn, it may appear there is little left for humans to do. There are many scary forecasts of the capacity of automation and AI to replace a lot of workers very fast. Self-driving vehicles may wipe out opportunities for taxi drivers and truckers, for example. Brynjolfsson, Rock, and Syverson note there are 3.5 million people employed driving vehicles in the US. If automation reduced that to 1.5 million, that alone would increase total US labor productivity by 1.7 percent, [1] but it would […]

Basic income can’t do enough to help workers displaced by technology

Basic income can’t do enough to help workers displaced by technology

A driverless truck being tested in Russia in 2018. The October Democratic presidential debate featured something that many activists would have considered impossible just a few years ago: a lengthy debate between leading presidential candidates about a universal basic income , a policy that would give all l adult Americans a basic cash benefit every month.

Andrew Yang , the nonprofit chief and entrepreneur who is currently polling ahead of senators like Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, has made a $1,000-per-month basic income for everyone between the ages of 18 and 64 — which he calls a “Freedom Dividend” […]

Predictive Scheduling Is Bad for Workers, Good for Self-Checkout Kiosks

Predictive Scheduling Is Bad for Workers, Good for Self-Checkout Kiosks

In the gig-economy era where flexible work schedules have become the norm, certain cities like Chicago and Seattle haven’t got the message. In July, Chicago passed a predictive scheduling law, which makes employers post their schedules well in advance for hourly workers and then fine or penalize employers for making any changes to the set schedules. While the law is well-intended, the results are disastrous, according to a new study by the American Consumer Institute.

The study estimates that predictive scheduling regulations, if adopted nationwide, would make business operations more costly, reduce economic output by $44 billion, and lead […]

No one has a damn clue how many jobs will be lost to automation

No one has a damn clue how many jobs will be lost to automation

Democrats tackled several issues on the debate stage Tuesday night that had previously gone untouched. One of those was automation — the idea that robots and technology will replace workers and destroy jobs.

It prompted a confusing discussion about whether automation is actually killing jobs or whether free trade policies are. And it didn’t offer up much of a clear answer.

CNN moderator Erin Burnet cited a study predicting that a quarter of US jobs will be lost from automation, then asked a few of the candidates what they would do to prevent such job losses.Sen. Bernie Sanders said guaranteeing a […]