Tag: inequality

Trump’s populism is only the beginning. Here come the robots.

Trump's populism is only the beginning. Here come the robots.

See how Amazon packages ship with less than :60 in human hands Populism is sweeping the nation, but it’s likely just getting started.

Donald Trump’s win is a wake-up call that voters are angry with a system that’s made middle-class jobs tougher to come by, and increased inequality.

As pronounced as the trend already is, it’s only just the beginning, experts say. Looming technological advances will wipe out more jobs, broadening the base of disenfranchised, unemployable and frustrated citizens. Meanwhile, elites with the skills to flourish in the digital economy will get richer. And governments will have to figure out […]

Trump’s jobs plan faces a bigger challenge than China

Trump's jobs plan faces a bigger challenge than China

Robots may prevent Trump from bringing back the manufacturing jobs he promised. Source: Reuters President-elect Donald Trump has promised to wage a war against globalization, to bring back jobs that corporations have sent abroad. But what about all the jobs that simply don’t exist anymore, left behind by advances in technology?

For anyone in the US manufacturing economy Trump has been describing, a job lost to China looks and feels identical to a job lost to technology, making it hard to effectively get to the bottom of what’s happening—and how to fix it for the American workforce.

From Federal Reserve data, […]

Automation May Undermine President Trump’s Jobs Reshoring Plan

Automation May Undermine President Trump’s Jobs Reshoring Plan

One of Donald Trump’s campaign promises was to bring back manufacturing jobs by renegotiating trade deals which have been disadvantageous to American workers and also by improving the business environment generally.

On Thursday, the Trump jobs strategy was discussed on the Fox Business channel, including renegotiating NAFTA and rejecting the Trans Pacific Partnership. Returning manufacturing can certainly be accomplished, and is already occurring to a degree (“reshoring”) due to a troublesome and growing trend that went undiscussed during the campaign — automation, in the form of robots and more advanced software . A robot-assisted American in a reshored factory might […]

Robots endanger up to two-thirds of emerging economy jobs

Robots endanger up to two-thirds of emerging economy jobs

Photo: Shutterstock Photo: AP Robots could be set to displace millions of jobs across the globe with industries favouring a digital revolution at the expense of human workers, according to a report from the United Nations .

Artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is most prevalent in the automotive and electronic industries and countries with a particular focus on exports, such as Mexico and developing economies in Asia, are identified as the “most exposed” to an AI influx, according to a policy brief by the UN Conference on Trade and Development published this week in conjunction with research from the […]

Robots endanger millions of jobs worldwide, Asian economies “most exposed”

Robots endanger millions of jobs worldwide, Asian economies

Robots could be set to displace millions of jobs across the globe with industries favouring a digital revolution at the expense of human workers, according to a report from the United Nations.

Mexico and Asia ‘most exposed’

Artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is most prevalent in the automotive and electronic industries and countries with a particular focus on exports, such as Mexico and developing economies in Asia, are identified as the "most exposed" to an AI influx, according to a policy brief by the UN Conference on Trade and Development published this week in conjunction with research from […]

Tech world, you are also to blame for the rise of Donald Trump

Tech world, you are also to blame for the rise of Donald Trump

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – NOVEMBER 9: Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump of Republican Party, gather in front of the Midtown Hilton Hotel where Trump will make his victory speech as the results of the 2016 Presidential Election became clear in New York, NY, USA on November 9, 2016. Republican nominee Donald Trump won victory against Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton on US presidential election. Photo by Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency/ Opinion: We are largely here because internet technology may have improved global communication, but it has decimated American jobs. Let this be a wake up call

Two months ago, […]

Will automation render labour useless?

As the industrial revolution gradually took hold in England and other parts of Europe, machines increasingly came to replace manual labour. Not everybody was happy at this development, especially those who lost their means of earning bread and butter.

One group, later to be called the ‘Luddites’, resorted to violence and broke up machines that were intended to replace manual labour. Since that time, any anyone who casts aspersions on technological advancement and its effects on labour has been labelled Luddites.

Since the Industrial Revolution, Luddism has been kept in check largely owing to the fact that the requirement for human […]

We’re witnessing the third industrial revolution playing out in real time

We're witnessing the third industrial revolution playing out in real time

Where did all the jobs go, and who will bring them back? (Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images) When I pitched this post, I planned to write about the future of jobs — as in, what are young people going to do when computers and robots take over all the work? What are the people whose jobs have been automated out of existence going to do? I was finishing Martin Ford’s "The Rise of the Robots," in which he suggests there won’t be many jobs, and that instead we’ll need a guaranteed annual basic income for citizens because there won’t be […]

The Skills Delusion

The Skills Delusion

Adair Turner Everybody agrees that better education and improved skills, for as many people as possible, is crucial to increasing productivity and living standards and to tackling rising inequality. But what if everybody is wrong?

Most economists are certain that human capital is as important to productivity growth as physical capital. And to some degree, that’s obviously true. Modern economies would not be possible without widespread literacy and numeracy: many emerging economies are held back by inadequate skills.

But one striking feature of the modern economy is how few skilled people are needed to drive crucial areas of economic activity. Facebook […]

Elon Musk Thinks Universal Income Is Answer To Automation Taking Human Jobs

but menial jobs that generate less value than a living wage but also pay much less than a living wage so the company generates a net profit while taking advantage of someone in a desperate situation, yes those jobs are becoming widespread. 1. But they’re not becoming widespread. Wages are increasing almost everywhere in the world, and jobs are becoming less menial. Compare the terrible jobs that the vast majority had 100 years ago to the jobs they have today. Or the jobs people have in developing countries to the jobs they have in more advanced economies.

This scaremongering being […]