Tag: liberal

Trump Voters Need Good Economic Policy, Not Empathy

Trump Voters Need Good Economic Policy, Not Empathy

There has been a strange debate among many liberals and progressives since the election as to whether they should have empathy for the people who voted for Donald Trump. After all, Trump is a pretty reprehensible character who has pledged to do some pretty awful things in the White House. Is there a reason that people should have empathy for the voters who put him there?

Whatever answer you pick to that question, there is another set of questions that should be simpler for progressives to answer. What are the right economic policies to be pursuing for the working class? […]

Tech Guru Breaks From The Pack, Says Automation Will Create MORE Jobs

Tech Guru Breaks From The Pack, Says Automation Will Create MORE Jobs

By Eric Lieberman

Tech guru and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said Tuesday that automation, like the technology embedded in self-driving cars, will not take away available jobs but will actually create more.

“It’s a Luddite fallacy. It’s a recurring panic,” Andreessen said during a conference hosted by Recode, specifically referring to the oft-professed concern that automation is bad for the country and the world. “This happens every 25 or 50 years — people get all amped up about ‘machines are going to take all the jobs’ and it never happens.”Andreessen used particular historical references to help corroborate his contentions.People, especially horse […]

The new economy is coming

Late May is college commencement speech season, and there are always one or two destined to cause upset. This year, add to the list the Harvard commencement speech given last Thursday by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his call for "universal basic income," which is a fancy way of describing a kind of Social Security for all. As might be expected, the tech pioneer was lambasted on such social media platforms as Facebook (which he no doubt appreciated) by conservatives who see UBI as a doubling down on welfare, as well as some liberals who instinctively distrust an idea […]

Mark Zuckerberg called for exploring universal basic income in his Harvard graduation speech. Here’s what that means.

Mark Zuckerberg called for exploring universal basic income in his Harvard graduation speech. Here’s what that means.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg greets graduating Harvard students as he walks in a procession though Harvard Yard at the start of commencement exercises Thursday. Mark Zuckerberg floated a number of political reforms during his Harvard commencement speech Thursday.

Online voting. Personalized learning. Student loan relief. Higher taxes on the wealthy.

But of all the ideas he suggested, perhaps none were as radical or surprising as a thing called “universal basic income.”Zuckerberg said he never would’ve founded Facebook if not for his relative financial security, something other potential entrepreneurs may not enjoy.“We should have a society that measures progress not just by […]

Layoffs in IT sector

Layoffs in IT sector

(Picture used for representational purpose only) The Information Technology industry in India is in the process of laying off thousands of its employees. The sector that symbolises the emergence of new India is expected to show the doors to over half a lakh employees thus fuelling a sense of despair in the Indian middle class that saw in it a hope and aspiration for their youth.

The industry circles attribute this to two reasons – the trend of automation and the protectionism pursued by the new dispensation in US.

Though these factors cannot be ruled out for the current jolt in […]

Retail Use of Automation Is Increasing

Retail Use of Automation Is Increasing

Automation is creating a revolution in shopping: from ordering merchandise from Amazon to visiting a local supermarket with self-checkout, the machines are moving in. In particular, big changes are coming in retail out where the public will see them. Store sales persons who can advise and help customers are pretty much on the way out.

Below, the LoweBot retail robot can guide customers to the location of items they want to purchase. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, retail workers account for millions of jobs: Retail salespersons and cashiers were occupations with highest employment in May 2015 , […]

Why Don’t All Jobs Matter?

Why Don’t All Jobs Matter?

President Trump is still promising to bring back coal jobs. But the underlying reasons for coal employment’s decline — automation, falling electricity demand , cheap natural gas, technological progress in wind and solar — won’t go away.

Meanwhile, last week the Treasury Department officially (and correctly) declined to name China as a currency manipulator, making nonsense of everything Mr. Trump has said about reviving manufacturing.

So will the Trump administration ever do anything substantive to bring back mining and manufacturing jobs? Probably not.But let me ask a different question: Why does public discussion of job loss focus so intensely on mining […]

What Are the Implications of Emerging Technologies in AI-Driven Robotics and Automation for Globalization?

Last month I attended an outstanding workshop at the University of Pennsylvania’s newly-established Perry World House on a topic that (as far as I can tell) has not received the attention it should: the intersection of emerging technologies with globalization. As it happens, I work in both these areas—but when I received the workshop invitation to join a panel on the interactions of emerging technologies in AI-enabled robotics and automation with processes of globalization, I realized I had never given much thought to how these two might interact with each other, today and into the future.

While there is a […]

Robots, not immigrants, are taking American jobs

Robots, not immigrants, are taking American jobs

Top of the Ticket The robots are coming! The robots are coming! They are coming and they will completely alter our economic reality. However, instead of planning for this revolutionary change, America’s politicians — from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders on down — continue to cling to the illusion that, with the right tinkering, there can be enough jobs enough for everyone, just like in the good old days.

Well, the good old days are gone, and a story on the Futurism website demonstrates why: Changying Precision Technology Co.’s cellphone factory in China recently replaced 90% of its workers with […]

Good Society: What Needs To Be Done

Good Society: What Needs To Be Done

Marc Saxer Trump, Brexit, Le Pen. Right-wing populist revolts are shaking the liberal order. Progressives, however, lack the strength to rein in global capitalism, break the neoliberal hegemony and fight back that populist challenge. To save democracy, we need to get down to work on three construction sites: a new economic model, an identity narrative and a new approach to organizing struggles. The Human Economy

Ever since the Second Industrial Revolution petered out, global capitalism has faced a demand crisis. If you now think that all we need is to stop austerity, think again. Over the past decades, developed […]