Tag: inequality

The future of work will be far less frightening when there’s more women in AI

The future of work will be far less frightening when there’s more women in AI

The future is here. Open a web browser. Pick up a newspaper. Search for stories about artificial intelligence and the future of work. While scholarship on the topic is getting increasingly nuanced , you’re still likely to confront dire warnings about how smart machines are coming to take our jobs . Like, all of them.

Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk says mass automation is “ the scariest problem ” facing society because “what’s going to happen is robots will be able to do everything better than us … I mean all of us.” AI pioneer and venture […]

Tech in Africa: Job killer, or job creator?

Tech in Africa: Job killer, or job creator?

Investment in education is the only way to prevent job automation becoming a fatality (phonlamaiphoto – stock.adobe.com) Everyone agrees jobs is a priority of the 21st century on the continent. But will technology help or hinder? Our experts push aside the distinction to focus on skills, mind-sets and structural reform…

It is the first of May, international day of workers, at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town. Paul Mashatile, dressed in the trademark yellow and green T-shirt of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), is speaking to a packed audience of trade unionists dressed in red.

“There are many of our […]

Resisting the rise of the robots

Resisting the rise of the robots

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Reactions In a world of growing automation and consequent job losses, what the continued existence of petrol attendants in South Africa shows is that a social contract can exist between business and government to preserve jobs. Surely the trade-off between jobs and mechanisation is up for negotiation.

A strike looms in the banking sector over the loss of jobs as banks close branches, supposedly an inevitable result of the move to internet banking. McDonald’s has introduced self-service kiosks, and Ster-Kinekor has added automated snack ordering to its automated ticket system.This is happening in a country where the […]

Philexport: Create more jobs to boost automation readiness

Philexport: Create more jobs to boost automation readiness

AN EXPORT industry leader has underscored the need for the country to create more employment opportunities especially in the rural areas to prepare itself for Industry 4.0 and foster inclusive national economic development agenda.

Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. noted the Yonsei University Automation Readiness Index 2017 indicating that low unemployment, labor productivity, income inequality and high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita are the factors affecting automation readiness.

“(These are) areas where the Philippines still needs to work on a lot. However, this does not mean that we should brush this issue aside. We must […]

The future of work will still include plenty of jobs

The future of work will still include plenty of jobs

Canada’s record has been one of modernization and transition and corresponding job obsolescence, without job scarcity Power loom weaving in a cotton mill in Lancashire, U.K., around 1835. Shutterstock (CP) — There is now widespread anxiety over the future of work, often accompanied by calls for a basic income to protect those displaced by automation and other technological changes.

As a labour economist, I am in favour of more efficient redistributive taxation through the application of refundable tax credits, which amounts to an income-tested basic income or negative income tax.

But I am more skeptical about the spectre of a future […]

The future of work will still include plenty of jobs

The future of work will still include plenty of jobs

Canada’s record has been one of modernization and transition and corresponding job obsolescence, without job scarcity Power loom weaving in a cotton mill in Lancashire, U.K., around 1835. Shutterstock (CP) — There is now widespread anxiety over the future of work, often accompanied by calls for a basic income to protect those displaced by automation and other technological changes.

As a labour economist, I am in favour of more efficient redistributive taxation through the application of refundable tax credits, which amounts to an income-tested basic income or negative income tax.

But I am more skeptical about the spectre of a future […]

The Future Of Humans, Taxes and Work

The Future Of Humans, Taxes and Work

It was a day like all others biking down the West Side Highway to work. Then BAM! Right out of nowhere a spandex-clad cyclist slammed into me from behind. I quickly grabbed his handlebars to protect the biker’s cranium from hitting the pavement. He reciprocated with loud shouts questioning my intelligence. When the disturbed human pedaled off, I noticed in his backpack two miniature dogs. Looking down at my bloodied hands, hearing the sad barks in the distance, I pondered the future of society as it races towards automation.

In the recent Democratic debate there was little discussion about the […]

Times of Malta Comment Policy

Times of Malta Comment Policy

One of the fathers of the US Constitution, James Madison, famously wrote that a democracy could not flourish if its people was ignorant; it could only end in farce, tragedy, or both. He had in mind both access to news and knowledge of constitutional rights and freedoms, and why they needed safeguarding.

So the process of constitutional reform here will hopefully mean that we not only change what needs to be changed for the better, but also ensure greater public awareness of constitutional values. Some things are worth reflecting on even if we have no intention of changing them.

The reason […]

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labour and Power in the Age of Automation – Book Review

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labour and Power in the Age of Automation – Book Review

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labour and Power in the Age of Automation . Carl Benedikt Frey. Princeton University Press. 2019.

It seems that barely a month can pass without new forecasts of technology-induced job losses hitting the front pages. The Office for National Statistics are at it , Deloitte , PricewaterhouseCoopers , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the World Bank even dedicated their most recent World Development Report to the future of work. Fittingly, it was Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne who turbo-charged the automation debate back in 2013 when their paper estimated that […]

The treasurer claimed the gender pay gap has closed. Job done! Except for the facts

The treasurer claimed the gender pay gap has closed. Job done! Except for the facts

Fellow feminists, rejoice! According to no less an authority than the treasurer of Australia, “…the gender pay gap has closed”. Josh Frydenberg said so, on Monday, in Question Time. It’s in Hansard, so it must be true.

Job done! We can all stop with the time-consuming advocacy and agitation, and just hit the shops to start spending the extra $241.50 per week we’re getting in our pay packets now that the government has brought our earnings into line with the blokes. Hurrah!

Except … not so much. It’s not true, as minister for women Marise Payne made clear in the Senate […]