Tag: consumption

Will automation take away all our jobs? | David Autor

Here’s a paradox you don’t hear much about: despite a century of creating machines to do our work for us, the proportion of adults in the US with a job has consistently gone up for the past 125 years. Why hasn’t human labor become redundant and our skills obsolete? In this talk about the future of work, economist David Autor addresses the question of why there are still so many jobs and comes up with a surprising, hopeful answer.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers […]

Will automation take away all our jobs? | David Autor [w/ subs]

Will automation take away all our jobs? | David Autor [w/ subs]

00:00:13 – Here’s a startling fact:
00:00:15 – in the 45 years since the introduction of the automated teller machine,
00:00:18 – those vending machines that dispense cash,
00:00:21 – the number of human bank tellers employed in the United States
00:00:24 – has roughly doubled, 00:00:26 – from about a quarter of a million to a half a million. 00:00:29 – A quarter of a million in 1970 to about a half a million today, 00:00:32 – with 100,000 added since the year 2000. 00:00:36 – These facts, revealed in a recent book 00:00:39 – by Boston University […]

Futures Shaped by Automation and Catastrophe: Peter Frase on Capitalism’s Endgame

Futures Shaped by Automation and Catastrophe: Peter Frase on Capitalism's Endgame

What will replace capitalism as we currently know it? (Photo: Wolf-Ulf Wulfrolf / Flickr) Is capitalism’s collapse inevitable? If so, what kind of post-capitalist society do we face? In Four Futures: Life After Capitalism , Peter Frase draws on social science, speculative fiction and social theory to create an engaging and thought-provoking portrait of four possible scenarios, some more dystopian than others. Order your copy of this book today from Truthout by clicking here!

As we automate more jobs and continue on a road to scarcity of resources, whither capitalism? The following is the Truthout interview with Peter Frase, […]

Many Fear Automation Will Wipe Out Jobs. But Automating Buildings Will Be a Jobs Creator

Many Fear Automation Will Wipe Out Jobs. But Automating Buildings Will Be a Jobs Creator

Amazon’s launch of its “Go” store — essentially a grocery with no cashiers — has fueled a debate about how automation will destroy jobs.

There are 3.4 million workers with some variant of the title “cashier” in America, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, making it one of the most common jobs in the country. But Amazon’s store eliminates this role. And soon, automated taxis, stores and restaurants could wipe out many millions of similar jobs across the service sector.

Experts are increasingly grappling with what technology, automation and artificial intelligence mean for the average worker. But it’s not […]

In the Automation Debate, Don’t Forget the Job Multiplier Effect

In the Automation Debate, Don’t Forget the Job Multiplier Effect

Emsi Senior Economist/Co-Founder In his 1950s satire Player Piano , author Kurt Vonnegut describes a dark dystopia where automation has led to a world of meager consumption and desperate idleness. The vision of workers displaced by machines predates this though, and is perhaps most associated with the 19 th century Luddite movement where workers sabotaged machinery for fear of losing jobs. In economic thought, the prospect of labor-replacing technology has a still much longer history.

The opinion of most economists has been that “Luddite fears” are misplaced. New technology is economically synonymous with increased efficiency, new and cheaper products, […]

The Case For Universal Basic Income

The Case For Universal Basic Income

When the government provides a basic income to all citizens of the country without any conditions attached, it is termed as universal basic income. It is a form of social security. There is increasing debate in the developed countries about the introduction of Universal Basic Income.

The combination of four factors, globalization, outsourcing, automaton, and the increasing adaptation and use of artificial intelligence is taking a growing toll on the low-income and middle-class sections of the society in developed countries, which is prompting the debate for the introduction of universal basic income.

In Canada, manufacturing employment has decreased. According to Statistics […]

Inevitability of automation necessitates adaptation: GDR Creative Intelligence CEO

Inevitability of automation necessitates adaptation: GDR Creative Intelligence CEO

Panasonic teamed with IBM’s cognitive computer Watson on concierge solutions NEW YORK – The Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing about rapid change, forcing both consumers and companies to adapt at a challenging pace, according to the CEO of GDR Creative Intelligence speaking at the National Retail Federation’s Retail’s Big Show on Jan. 17.

Whereas innovations during previous industrial revolutions moved humans from manual labor to more cognitive tasks, the fourth includes disruptive technology such as artificial intelligence that threatens to take intellectual jobs away from humans. The “Retail Opportunity for the Fast Changing World and the Human Mind” session uncovered […]

Robot arms replace factory hands

Robot arms replace factory hands

Donald Trump has been crowing as companies including Ford renounce plans to move factories to Mexico. But the main beneficiaries of this shift back to the US aren’t saying much by way of celebration — industrial robots don’t tend to speak.

While globalisation’s detractors blame countries such as China and Mexico for stealing the factory jobs of the West, experts point to less obvious culprits which are harder to scapegoat and to overcome in an interconnected economy with complex supply chains.

Since US manufacturing employment peaked in the late 1970s, according to Michael Hicks of the Center for Business and Economic […]

Robot arms replace factory hands

Robot arms replace factory hands

95 per cent of job losses are due to automation and computer technology. PHOTO: AFP PARIS: Donald Trump has been crowing as companies including Ford renounce plans to move factories to Mexico. But the main beneficiaries of this shift back to the US aren’t saying much by way of celebration — industrial robots don’t tend to speak.

While globalisation’s detractors blame countries such as China and Mexico for stealing the factory jobs of the West, experts point to less obvious culprits which are harder to scapegoat and to overcome in an interconnected economy with complex supply chains.

Since US manufacturing employment […]

English is a life skill

English is a life skill

The advent of society can be traced back to the formation of groups of human beings who had common ways of expressing themselves.Whether through commonality of expression, through the sounds they made, or gestures, or in their behaviour while chasing down prey or resolving conflicts, human beings found a way to communicate successfully with one […]

The evolution of functional societies came about through the evolution of languages through which messages could be communicated by one and interpreted by another. The advent of society can be traced back to the formation of groups of human beings who had common […]