Tag: consumer

“When Rates Really Suck And Drivers Take It On The Chin”

A conversation about the future of autonomous trucking with pro-labor author and sociologist Steve Viscelli.

Steve Viscelli doesn’t think of himself as a naysayer. "I’m more a yes-sayer with a pessimistic outlook," said Viscelli, an economic and political sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Big Rig: Trucking & the Decline of the American Dream.

That book featured some serious, on-the-ground research, with Viscelli driving thousands of miles in a Class 8 truck. He’s currently at work on another book about trucking, this time about autonomy and automation.And yeah, he’s pretty pessimistic about the self-driving future, at […]

Automation and jobs: When technology boosts employment

Automation and jobs: When technology boosts employment

Do industries shed or create jobs when they adopt new labour-saving technologies? This column shows that manufacturing employment grew along with productivity for a century or more, and only later decreased. It argues that the changing nature of demand was behind this pattern, which led to market saturation. This implies that the main impact of automation in the near future may be a major reallocation of jobs, not necessarily massive job losses.

There is widespread concern today that many jobs will be lost to new computer technologies, as more human tasks can be performed by machines. A host of recent […]

‘When rates really suck and drivers take it on the chin’

‘When rates really suck and drivers take it on the chin’

A conversation about the future of autonomous trucking with pro-labor author and sociologist Steve Viscelli.

Steve Viscelli doesn’t think of himself as a naysayer. “I’m more a yes-sayer with a pessimistic outlook,” said Viscelli, an economic and political sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Big Rig: Trucking & the Decline of the American Dream.

That book featured some serious, on-the-ground research, with Viscelli driving thousands of miles in a Class 8 truck. He’s currently at work on another book about trucking, this time about autonomy and automation.And yeah, he’s pretty pessimistic about the self-driving future, at […]

Bill de Blasio’s Proposed ‘Robot Tax’ Is Completely Unnecessary, Just Like His Candidacy

Bill de Blasio's Proposed 'Robot Tax' Is Completely Unnecessary, Just Like His Candidacy

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s latest attempt to jump-start his inert presidential campaign includes a call for a new federal tax on robots. This unnecessary burden on businesses would expand the federal bureaucracy and fund boondoggle projects, and it is based on a faulty understanding of the relationship between jobs and automation.

In an column published last week by Wired , de Blasio outlines how his "robot tax" (his words) would work. Businesses that "eliminate jobs through increased automation" would be required to pay five years of payroll taxes, up front, for every employee replaced by a robot, de […]

10 Artificial Intelligence Pros And Cons You Didn’t Know About

10 Artificial Intelligence Pros And Cons You Didn’t Know About

The use of Artificial Intelligence, one of the most longstanding buzz words, is now on the rise. Modern-day industrial infrastructure seems to be pretty much equipped by this hype-turned- reality. However, have you ever dug deep within the spectrum of AI to find out what it all has in store for all?

Backed by the technology of Machine Learning, AI has penetrated deep within business operations . This is one of the rapidly growing and trendsetting technologies in the business industry today. According to research , global revenue earned from AI software is expected to reach $118.6 billion by […]

China economic stimulus and PP: how demand could have been 71m tonnes lower

China economic stimulus and PP: how demand could have been 71m tonnes lower

China came to the rescue of the global economy in 2009. This wasn’t for altruistic reasons as a government study said that unless a huge stimulus programme was launched, 20m Chinese workers would return to the coastal cities from inland China after the Lunar New Year in 2009 without jobs because of the collapse of orders from the West for China’s manufactured goods due to the global financial crisis.

But who cares? Whatever the motives, some one-third of global economic growth in the ten years between 2009 and 2018 came from China, up from less than 20% in the decade […]

Automation and AI: how it will actually affect the workplace

Automation and AI: how it will actually affect the workplace

Unexpected item in bagging area: how is automation affecting the labour market? Image edited from Shutterstock Is there any consensus on the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on our working lives? Will society benefit or suffer? How will HR play its part in reshaping the workforce? Adam McCulloch examines the impact on jobs and people management.

A blasé optimism pervades the burgeoning automation revolution. More jobs, not fewer, will be the result and a happier workforce, freed from drudgery, will be able to pursue more meaningful activities – whatever those may be. But many employees will inevitably be […]

Digitisation to unlock 1.2m jobs, ease SA’s unemployment woes

Digitisation to unlock 1.2m jobs, ease SA’s unemployment woes

Digitisation, machine learning and automation have the potential to create new jobs purely as a result of improved productivity. Digitisation and automation could result in a net gain of up to 1.2 million jobs in SA by 2030.

This is according to a new report, “The Future of Work in South Africa: Digitisation, productivity and job creation”, from McKinsey & Company.

It notes that technology-related gains could triple SA’s productivity growth, more than double growth in per capita income, and add more than a percentage point to its real GDP growth rate over the next decade.The report comes after the country’s […]

Big Story: In the Quad-Cities, the future of work has arrived. Are you ready?

Big Story: In the Quad-Cities, the future of work has arrived. Are you ready?

Brice Wagner, of Davenport, plays a game wearing a pair of VR goggles during class at the AVR Academy, an augmented and virtual reality lab. (Monday, August 26, 2019, at Scott Community College in Davenport) Stephon Morgan, of Davenport, plays a game wearing a pair of VR goggles during class at the AVR Academy, an augmented and virtual reality lab. (Monday, August 26, 2019, at Scott Community College in Davenport) In a windowless room in the heart of downtown Davenport, Robert Gillespie sees the future.

Strapped around his face is a virtual reality headset, a sort of crystal ball that […]

What is a Freelance Gig? How Does a Freelance Gig Freelance Marketplace Work?

What is a Freelance Gig? How Does a Freelance Gig Freelance Marketplace Work?

A gig is a temporary and flexible job, on location or through the internet, hired as an independent contractor (often known as freelancers) for people or companies looking for specialized services instead of hiring full-time employees. Often one full-time employee can not handle the plethora of different skills needed. So, instead of having a full-time employee, you can (for example) have 4-5 gig contractors splitting the workload, with each specialist solving a specific task. Freelance (sometimes spelled free-lance or free lance), freelancer, and freelance worker, are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily […]