Tag: liberal

The Great Automation Shift: Friend or Foe to the Future of Work?

The Great Automation Shift: Friend or Foe to the Future of Work?

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The specter of automation has haunted the working class for decades. From the textile mills of the Industrial Revolution to the self-driving cars of today, technological advancements have constantly reshaped the landscape of employment. Yet, the current wave of automation, fueled by artificial intelligence and robotics, feels different. Its potential impact on jobs is vast and multifaceted, prompting a crucial question: is automation a harbinger of mass unemployment or a catalyst for a transformed yet prosperous future of work?

On the surface, the threat of automation appears undeniable. Repetitive tasks, once the domain of human labor, […]

Protectionists Are Wrong: Free Trade is the Path to Prosperity

Protectionists Are Wrong: Free Trade is the Path to Prosperity

Print Invited guests flank then-President Trump at the signing ceremony for the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. 2020. Both major presidential candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, have leaned towards protectionism, a stance recently echoed by Terry Schilling in The American Conservative . Unfortunately, this perspective misses the mark.

Protectionism is not the solution to revitalize American manufacturing or the economy. The real culprits are flawed internal policies — excessive government spending, high taxes, and stringent regulations — that stifle growth and innovation.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle often scapegoat countries like China and Mexico for the decline in US […]

Levy Yeyati: ‘AI creates tensions that can lead to outsider populism’

Levy Yeyati: ‘AI creates tensions that can lead to outsider populism’

The Argentine economist spoke to the Herald about his recent book on AI’s impact on politics, economy, and society

Eduardo Levy Yeyati Eduardo Levy Yeyati is an Argentine economist, academic, and writer. In his latest book, “Automatizados” (Automated), co-authored with economist Darío Judzik, he plunges into the debate surrounding the impact of AI on the economy, jobs, and politics, as well as people’s daily lives.

Levy Yeyati received the Herald at his home in Buenos Aires. With his cat roaming in the background, he answered questions about the book’s key ideas. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. […]

AI is coming for the professional class. Expect outrage — and fear.

Will professionals displaced by AI find new jobs in health care? (iStock) I was born in 1973, just as the American economy was going to hell — though I cannot accept all the blame. It was the twilight of the 20th-century manufacturing boom that had almost managed to compress the whole country into one vast middle class and, for reasons beyond my control, that boom was unraveling. Inflation was headed into double digits as labor productivity began to decline, economic growth swooned, unemployment rose and manufacturing employment tipped into the final descent toward its current sub-10 percent share.

This turnaround […]

Automation Isn’t the Biggest Threat to US Factory Jobs

Automation Isn't the Biggest Threat to US Factory Jobs

For the past few decades, there has been an ongoing debate about the rise of automation in the industrial sector, and its potential impact on American manufacturing jobs. Many experts argue that as robots and AI become more advanced, they will inevitably replace many human workers on factory floors across the country. While the growing capabilities of automated systems do pose a legitimate disruption risk to some occupations, this view overlooks several important nuances regarding the true dynamics reshaping factory employment in the US. The relationship between automation and jobs is far more complex than simply machines displacing people […]

Are Robots, Machines and AI Replacing Ticos at Work?

Are Robots, Machines and AI Replacing Ticos at Work?

“The process of accelerated price increases that Costa Rica is experiencing is making automation advance faster,” said Eli Feinzaig, head of the Progressive Liberal Party faction.

The employed population in Costa Rica was reduced by more than 91 thousand jobs for the last quarter of last year compared to the same period in 2022.These are jobs that disappeared and at this moment no one knows why. Technology at fault

Entrepreneurs, economists and deputies have different hypotheses, but one of the ones that sounds the most strongly is related to the automation of services and tasks through machines, robots and […]

Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation- Book Review

Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation- Book Review

Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation- Book Review

Makenna Lingnau

· Follow 6 min read·6 hours ago Kevin Roose, author of Futureproof, is a columnist and podcast producer for the New York Times and best selling author of three books including Futureproof. According to The New York Times, Roose has covered technology and innovation for more than a decade and still continues to share his thoughts on the technologies that influence our lives, culture, and society (NYT, 2023).Futureproof, in simple terms, is the survival guide of living with new technologies and how to compete […]

U.S. Immigration Policy Lags behind a Globalizing World

U.S. Immigration Policy Lags behind a Globalizing World

Economic globalization has made little impact on U.S. immigration policy in recent decades. The United States has not expanded its low green card caps since 1990, and now it ranks in the bottom third of wealthy countries for its foreign‐​born share of the population.

Blaming immigrant labor force growth for sluggish wage growth is misplaced when—despite immigration—total labor force growth has continuously declined for decades.

Globalization and automation are not removing the need for immigrant workers to fill niches created by declining U.S. labor force growth. Instead, immigrants are playing pivotal roles in making trade and technological […]

Mechanical Turk workers are using AI to automate being human

Mechanical Turk workers are using AI to automate being human

Image Credits: API/Gamma-Raphio/Getty / Getty Images

File this one under inevitable but hilarious. Mechanical Turk is a service that from its earliest days seemed to invite shenanigans, and indeed researchers show that nearly half of its “turkers” appear to be using AI to do tasks that were specifically intended to be done by humans because AI couldn’t. We’ve closed the loop on this one; great job everybody!

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk let users divide simple tasks into any number of small subtasks that take only a few seconds to do, and which pay pennies — but dedicated piecemeal workers would perform thousands […]

AI Is About to Decimate Millions of Jobs. It’s Time for Universal Basic Income | Opinion

AI Is About to Decimate Millions of Jobs. It's Time for Universal Basic Income | Opinion

For the better part of the last 15 years, I’ve worked in what some might call the "real economy." In the digital print production industry, I’ve worked in warehouses and neighborhoods that reflected the ill effects of modern economic policy. I’ve seen manufacturing hubs stripped of economic vitality, workers struggling to meet basic needs, and the growing gap between those with college degrees and those without.

Most of the workers I’ve met over the years were hard working and doing the best they could with the skills they had. They deserved to be dealt a fair economic hand in exchange […]