Tag: inequality

The philosophy of profit over people

The philosophy of profit over people

Dear Editor,

The present world population is 7.6 billion as of August 2018 according to the most recent United Nations estimates. This is a testament of the success of human beings. From a biological perspective, we have been able to reach unprecedented population and still increasing with no end in sight. NASA plans to make oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars. Human beings are planning to take our species to populate distance planets in the future. In Belize people are more down to earth and care more about their quality of life, but everything is connected. In our modern world […]

Editorial: Raising minimum wage would cost jobs

Editorial: Raising minimum wage would cost jobs

Ballot drives for a $12 minimum wage and mandatory sick time appear to be headed for consideration in the Republican-controlled Legislature after Labor Day.

The calculus that has Republicans considering a move that would normally be anathema to their free-market principles is a political one, not an economic one.

The proposals likely would be a big lure for liberal-leaning voters to come out to the polls. That’s the situation Republicans are trying to avert in a year when many expect Democrats to make big gains, fueled by anti-Trump fervor. By passing the measures, the Legislature can keep the proposals off the […]

Britain faces social unrest because swathes of people are set to lose their jobs in robot revolution, Bank of England’s chief economist warns

Britain faces social unrest because swathes of people are set to lose their jobs in robot revolution, Bank of England's chief economist warns

There are calls for a massive skills drive to find employment for those set to be affected by the next wave of automation (file picture) There are calls for a massive skills drive to find employment for those set to be affected by the next wave of automation (file picture)

Britain faces the threat of social unrest as robots take ‘swathes’ of jobs, the Bank of England’s chief economist warned today.

Andy Haldane said the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution will see ‘the machine replacing humans doing thinking things’.He cautioned that the ‘dark side’ of the change could be disruption on a […]

“People plus machines, not people or machines”: experts respond to Bank of England AI comments

“People plus machines, not people or machines”: experts respond to Bank of England AI comments

Andy Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, has warned that the spread of AI in the workplace could disrupt the job market and lead to “rising inequality”. However, not everyone shares his views.

He told the BBC that the “fourth Industrial Revolution” could lead to “job loss displacement” on a scale not seen before, particularly manual jobs. He fears that the introduction of AI could leave many “technologically unemployed” and leave thousands of jobs at risk of becoming obsolete.

Haldane is not alone in this view, with the common rhetoric surrounding AI still focusing on the danger it poses […]

Droids to steal ‘swathes’ of jobs in ‘dark robot revolution’, warns top economist

Droids to steal ‘swathes’ of jobs in ‘dark robot revolution’, warns top economist

ROBOTS are poised to take "swathes" of jobs from humans – and not just manual labour roles, either.

A leading economist has warned that as robotic tech improves, we could see the "dark side" of a fourth industrial revolution. Reuters The Bank of England’s Chief Economist Andy Haldane has warned over a robot takeover GETTY – CONTRIBUTOR Robots will nick 56 percent of low-wage jobs in the next two decades, predicts the UN Andy Haldane, chief economist at the, Bank of England said: "The first three industrial revolutions have been about largely machines replacing humans doing principally manual tasks, whereas […]

Will the continued rise of automation cause widespread job losses?

Will the continued rise of automation cause widespread job losses?

It is clear that the jobs most likely to fall victim to automation are the low-skilled ones, especially the ones that involve tasks that can be mimicked by a machine

As labour-saving technologies advance, concerns regarding job security will likely rise in tandem. According to a study by PwC, 37 percent of the 10,000 people surveyed across five countries were worried automation would put jobs at risk. The bulk of available evidence seems to suggest there is little reason to worry, as the net effect on employment will likely be small and may, in fact, result in gains. But dealing […]

Economics101: Automation need not endanger human jobs

Economics101: Automation need not endanger human jobs

Many people are terrified that automation and artificial intelligence are the beginning of the end for human jobs. ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP Many people are terrified that automation and artificial intelligence are the beginning of the end for human jobs.

The result is dystopian visions of a world where most humans do nothing all day, being denied a dignified existence, while an elite class who own and control robots amass immeasurable wealth. Are such fears well-founded?

Before we discuss the latest research, it is worth noting an old but still instructive observation made by the British economist Nicholas Kaldor in 1961. Decades of […]

Economist Kaushik Basu worried over poor jobs data in India

Economist Kaushik Basu worried over poor jobs data in India

[File] Kaushik Basu | Reuters Kaushik Basu, the former chief economic adviser to the government of India, has raised concerns on the state of India’s jobs market and has also called for improving education standards, where we have slipped in rankings.

"Jobs data is very poor in India. Part of it is legitimate reason that so much of work is so different from what you get in the west that the definitions of west with which you are collecting (data), Indian answers will not fit into these and we are not good at collecting jobs data. But from all the […]

The definition of work is about to be permanently transformed

Rohinton Medhora is president at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ont.

David Ossip is chairman and CEO at Ceridian, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn.

With the rapid digitization of numerous industries and many facets of our everyday lives, artificial intelligence and robotics are poised to transform the economy in a way similar to the industrial revolution. While these technologies will boost productivity, we should be concerned about their potential effect on the labour market. These effects have the potential to radically change the way of life for billions of people and should be […]

Is the AI Revolution Going to Make Universal Income a Necessity?

Is the AI Revolution Going to Make Universal Income a Necessity?

Takeaway: With artificial intelligence and automation becoming more sophisticated and and taking over more tasks, displaced human workers will need to find other means of income.

The artificial intelligence (AI) craze goes well beyond the warm enthusiasm that usually accompanies any new technology that reaches the market. We’re experiencing a paradigm shift that closely resembles the fundamental change brought by the introduction of cellphones in the early 2000s or by the informatics revolution in the late ’90s. However, as it always happens with machines and as the Transformers taught us back in the ’80s , there’s more to it […]