Tag: inequality

Relax, robots won’t be taking your job

Relax, robots won’t be taking your job

My favourite series as a kid was The Jetsons , not so much because it was funny but because it was aspirational, particularly Rosie the robot who took care of all domestic chores: the cooking, the cleaning, the serving, everything.

You’d be forgiven, then, based on an endless queue of media articles, for thinking Rosies are our future and that you’ll someday lose your job to one. They’ll be delivering your groceries and serving your coffee , and they’ll be cleaning your house and driving your bus . They’ll even be giving you advice and keeping you company . But […]

Which American Workers Are At Risk Of Automation?

Which American Workers Are At Risk Of Automation?

UPFINA’s Mission: The pursuit of truth in finance and economics to form an unbiased view of current events in order to understand human action, its causes and effects. Read about our mission here.

The 3 month average of yearly nominal wage growth for those making less than $15 per hour is almost 5%, demonstrated in the chart below. In each subsequent higher hourly earnings group growth is lower, with those making more than $45 per hour only seeing slightly more than a 1% raise which doesn’t even keep up with inflation. Low End Of Labor Market Seeing Fastest Wage […]

The Answer to Rising Inequality Isn’t Redistribution

The Answer to Rising Inequality Isn’t Redistribution

robot Uncredited Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines by calling for “ taxing the robots ” of the emergent digital economy. That followed upon her previous call for a 70% top marginal income tax rate on the richest and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan for a 2% wealth tax on assets worth more than $50 million (and 3% on assets worth more than $1 billion).

By putting inequality front and center on the political agenda as the U.S. heads into the election season, Democratic politicians are trying to capture the populist zeitgeist.

The redistributionist rhetoric has some investors concerned . Ray Dalio, who […]

Globalisation, automation and the history of work: Looking back to understand the future

Globalisation, automation and the history of work: Looking back to understand the future

The economy appears to be on the cusp of a third great transformation, driven by globalisation and automation. In this post, Richard Baldwin argues that the first step in thinking clearly about the future of work is to look at its historical transformations.

The future of work is a fascinating and important topic – and has been since steam power first got useful in the early 18th century. Since then, economies have struggled through two major economic transformations: when people moved from farms to factories, and when they moved from factories to offices.

Many believe that the economy is on […]

Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Work

Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Work

Image by Alexander Yakimov via Shutterstock.com Scepticism of innovation is as old as the ages, but it can empower our societies. It is still too often the case that new technology is met with doubt and hesitation. In 1995, renowned astronomer Clifford Stoll stated , “The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher, and no computer network will change the way government works”. Stoll, alongside others, misjudged human behaviour and our ability to adapt. We can learn from such statements by being open to new technologies […]

Maybe the robot will do you a favor and snatch your job

Maybe the robot will do you a favor and snatch your job

Recently, Amazon floated the idea that it would be fully automated in a decade: Not all of the 125,000 people who work at Amazon warehouses have to worry about losing their jobs to robots — not for 10 years or so, anyways.

On Tuesday, Scott Anderson, director of Amazon Robotics Fulfillment, led reporters on a tour of the company’s Baltimore warehouse during which he said it would be “at least 10 years” before Amazon could entirely automate the fulfillment process. When we read further into the story, of course, we find it’s not so simple. Robots are especially bad […]

Robotics boom to lead to economic inequality across Southeast Asia

Robotics boom to lead to economic inequality across Southeast Asia

Author and futurist Martin Ford has warned AI adoption will not only result in job losses but economic equality.

Speaking about advances in technologies across Southeast Asia, Ford said:

"One main danger of advanced technology adoption across Southeast Asia is economic inequality and perhaps unemployment or underemployment for some groups of workers. The implications of advancing automation technology is that capital captures more income relative to labor. This means that a few very wealthy people who already own a lot of capital are likely to become even richer, while average workers who own nothing but the value of their own labor […]

Robots and us

Robots and us

Photo: Getty Images The robots are not at the gates and the future of work could be great, Kinley Salmon says. So why are others not so chipper? And what does Trump, Kaitangata and the demise of the middle class have to do with how we will live when automation takes over? Bruce Munro investigates.

In late-June, 1970, as Joyce Kempton stood in the fading light at the Balclutha bus stop waiting for her fiance, Sid Beck, to pick her up in his Mark II Zephyr, she was acutely aware of the air of concern pervading her hometown, Kaitangata.

Joyce […]

Opinion Bill Shorten’s promise of a living wage is both realistic and necessary. But it’s not enough

Opinion Bill Shorten's promise of a living wage is both realistic and necessary. But it's not enough

It ought to be possible to replace Australia’s minimum wage with a higher "living wage" without putting people our of work, but more will be needed. Opposition leader Bill Shorten will instruct the Fair Work Commission to replace the minimum wage with a higher “living wage” if Labor are elected to power. Image from Wikimedia/Matt Roberts, ABC. If elected, Labor has promised to ask the Fair Work Commission to substantially increase the minimum wage, at present pegged at A$18.93 per hour or $719.20 per week .

It says the intervention is justified because under current rules, the commission is required […]

Bill Shorten’s promise of a living wage is both realistic and necessary. But it’s not enough.

Bill Shorten’s promise of a living wage is both realistic and necessary. But it’s not enough.

Today we kick off a four part election series on wages, industrial relations, Labor and the union movement. In the first, University of NSW professor Andreas Ortmann examines Labor’s proposal to have the Fair Work Commission award a so-called “living wage” instead of a minimum wage. You can read a comparison of Labor and the Coalition’s industrial relations policies here .

If elected, Labor has promised to ask the Fair Work Commission to substantially increase the minimum wage, at present pegged at A$18.93 per hour or $719.20 per week .

It says the intervention is justified because under current rules, […]