Tag: consumption

Confusion about job creation is obscuring America’s productivity crisis

Confusion about job creation is obscuring America's productivity crisis

Robots work on a new Volkswagen Crafter production line at the newly opened Volkswagen factory in Wrzesnia near Poznan, Poland, in September. There is perhaps no other topic in economics that is more prone to illogical thinking than job creation. It is a wellspring of hysterical nonsense.

Let’s start with the canard that technology and automation kill jobs. Notwithstanding the fact that US productivity growth rates are at an all-time low, a growing chorus blames technology for killing our jobs. Writing in The New Yorker, NYU professor Gary Marcus alleges that, “as machines continue to get smarter, cheaper, and more […]

Divide and Automate

Divide and Automate

Illustration by Lydia Wojack-West

As a species, we are poised at the brink of a transformation unlike any before.

The ancestor of this coming metamorphosis was not political or philosophical in nature; it did not emerge from the ashes of the American Revolution or the Bolshevik’s, nor did it germinate from the teachings of Jesus, Buddha or Muhammad. The predecessor to the singularity we so boldly march toward was something far more primordial, far more tangible. It was industrial.The last three industrial revolutions transformed the fabric of human civilization: The first, borne of steam and coal, powered newly invented […]

The United Nations claims automation will take 2/3rds of jobs in developing nations

The United Nations claims automation will take 2/3rds of jobs in developing nations

What a fitting time. Seeing as America just elected the least qualified party to handle the automation problem in America as well as a candidate promising the return of automatable jobs, we now know the sights and conflict are poised to wreck the fuck out of the developing world. They have it worse than many first world societies, where the concerns are one in three jobs are dissolved. All figures, assuming the worst of them pose true, are concerns for social conflict, insecurity, and instability.

Have some more darkly sobering news today . Some excerpts… Industrialization has historically been […]

Robotics, driverless tech are taking over mining jobs

Robotics, driverless tech are taking over mining jobs

In the next decade, the mining industry may lose more than half of its jobs to automation, according to a new report. That’s not based on future technologies, but on automated equipment being deployed today.

The mining industry is primed for automation. It’s capital intensive, buys expensive equipment and pays relatively well.

This industry is adopting self-driving trucks, automated loaders and automated drilling and tunnel-boring systems. It is also testing fully autonomous long-distance trains, which carry materials from the mine to a port, according to the report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Winnipeg, Canada.A broader question is whether […]

Robotics, driverless tech are taking over mining jobs

Robotics, driverless tech are taking over mining jobs

Coal is transported via conveyor belt to the coal-fired Jim Bridger Power Plant. The coal is supplied by a mine owned by PacifiCorp and the Idaho Power Company, outside Point of the Rocks, Wyoming. In the next decade, the mining industry may lose more than half of its jobs to automation, according to a new report. That’s not based on future technologies, but on automated equipment being deployed today.

The mining industry is primed for automation. It’s capital intensive, buys expensive equipment and pays relatively well.

This industry is adopting self-driving trucks, automated loaders and automated drilling and tunnel-boring systems. It […]

Another warning. The world is about to run low on JOBS as automation takes over

Another warning. The world is about to run low on JOBS as automation takes over

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More data and more warnings . The fourth industrial revolution has started. It will be jobless and many people will lose their employment, or be forced to compete for their jobs. The result is, you will probably be unemployed, or accept low wages to survive. What will we do in a world without work? LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) – Just a few years ago, forecasters issued a dire warning. The world’s workers are in danger of running out of work. As the fourth […]

How Technology Can Defuse the Demographic Time Bomb

How Technology Can Defuse the Demographic Time Bomb

As people live longer and working age populations face hardship, technology could help ease the growing dependency burden. Society is currently faced with two converging phenomena. On the one hand, rapidly aging populations are supported by a shrinking working age population. On the other, those in work are increasingly being replaced by machines as result of the technological revolution. Yet these subjects are rarely discussed together, which is surprising given that technology has important implications for work and employment and the problem of old-age dependency is, as a matter of fact, a problem of work and production. As a […]

Automated Inequality

Automated Inequality

Humans have been here before—at least three times before, in fact. At first, it was steam and water power; then came electricity and mass production; and then IT and computerization. Each time, Joseph Schumpeter’s “gale of creative destruction” blustered as rapid advances in technology destroyed some jobs, paved the way for new lines of work, and ultimately provided enhanced productivity and lifestyles for the majority. Researchers predict that over the next decade or so, emerging technological breakthroughs will once again fundamentally alter jobs and manufacturing processes around the world—but this time, the consequences could be drastically different.

There is little […]

Are trade agreements good for the U.S. economy?

Are trade agreements good for the U.S. economy?

The Congressional Budget Office isn’t exactly offering a ringing endorsement of trade agreements like NAFTA.

Such pacts have “had relatively small positive effects” on American trade and its economy, according to a report from the federal agency, which analyzes economic and budget issues on behalf of lawmakers. The downside? Workers in industries facing tougher competition can end up out of work, sometimes permanently, CBO notes.

Trade agreements have become a lightning rod in the presidential election, with Republican candidate Donald Trump declaring that the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement “has destroyed our country,” and suggesting that if elected he would […]

Basic Income Might Be The Answer To Society’s Productivity Crisis

Basic Income Might Be The Answer To Society's Productivity Crisis

With the decline of manufacturing jobs, and the onset of automation to take over almost all kinds of work, society is on the hunt for a long-term, scalable solution to our future productivity.

What will happen to displaced workers? How will mass unemployment hurt our increasingly globalized economy?

One concept, a universal basic income, has been debated by thinkers as far back as the 16th century . The theory suggests that a flat income, given to every citizen regardless of employment or societal status, will allow society to pursue the work it really believes in. Can a monthly universal stipend help […]