Tag: manufactur

Automation, then and now

Automation, then and now

In the just-released March issue of the Brooklyn Rail , Jason E. Smith compares twentieth-century waves of automation to the new wave of automation that seems to be engulfing the global economy now. In the process, Smith questions some widespread assumptions about automation, including the notion that it necessarily leads to greater unemployment, as well as the idea espoused by some leftists that automation will eventually free us from work entirely. Read an excerpt from Smith’s piece below, of the full text here13 . It may be that the history of capitalism is the history of automation. Warnings about […]

Matt Nolan presents his Top 10 links on the economics of automation

Matt Nolan presents his Top 10 links on the economics of automation

Today’s Top 10 is a guest post from Matt Nolan, an economist at Infometrics , and an author at the blog site TVHE .

As always, we welcome your additions in the comment stream below or via email to david.chaston@interest.co.nz.

And if you’re interested in contributing the occasional Top 10 yourself, contact gareth.vaughan@interest.co.nz.Before writing this I had a search of interest.co.nz for “automation”. I found the following articles as the first 5 links: A top ten by Lena Hesselgrave , an article by Nigel Pinkerton (a colleague of mine), an article from NZIER , and two Top Tens from myself. Finally, […]

Automation and the prospects of economic development

Automation and the prospects of economic development

By Joselito T. Sescon

Technological anxiety has been with us since the first modern industries appeared. The angst toward new technologies is mainly about the fear of widespread substitution and displacement of human labor by machines. Historical experiences in early industrialization have shown that new technologies used in production initially had disruptive effects to labor and existing production assets. However, new technologies also ushered in the birth of new industries, created new jobs, becoming the source of productivity, economic growth and development.

Automation, like most new labor-saving technologies, has an effect of raising the comparative advantage and value of jobs that […]

HR’s Evolving Role In A Robotised Corporate World

HR’s Evolving Role In A Robotised Corporate World

The world is either forever enamoured or worried by the term ‘robot’, which now is also referred to software bots other than the traditional mechanical forms. Studies are predicting that almost 50 per cent of present jobs will vanish over the next couple of decades because of the development in the field of robotics or artificial intelligence. In 2013, researchers at Oxford predicted that nearly half of all jobs in the United States are at high risk of being computerized in the next decade or two. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center finds that 65 per cent […]

Taxation of robots

Taxation of robots

On February 17, Bill Gates set the news agenda around the world by declaring that a so-called "robot tax" should be introduced in order to counteract job losses caused by automation. "Right now," he told online publication Quartz , "the human worker who does, say, $50,000 worth of work in a factory has that income taxed. If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think that we’d tax the robot at a similar level."

There is no doubting that Gates’ vision of job displacement is not of a distant dystopian future, but today’s reality: in 2015 expenditure […]

Opinion: Trump sells snake oil to Rust Belt

Opinion: Trump sells snake oil to Rust Belt

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Washington — Donald Trump boasts that his “America First” trade and economic policies are bringing well-paid manufacturing jobs back to America. That’s probably his biggest “deliverable” to Trump voters. But is this claim true?

Trump won the presidency partly because he voiced the anger of American workers about lost jobs and stagnant wages. But in the process, he fundamentally misled the country by claiming that trade is the major cause of job losses, and that renegotiating trade agreements would save the middle class.What Trump is offering is a palliative that has raised false hopes. He implies that a few good […]

Davos — the rich are worried

Davos — the rich are worried

Jordan Times (MENAFN – Jordan Times) I can’t wait to see how the incoming administration deals with AI,’ said US Secretary of State John Kerry in a less-than-gracious reference to the fact that the Trump team has not got a clue about the real driving force in the changing world economy.

What was striking was that Kerry did not have to clarify his remark for the 2,000 ‘global leaders’ — politicians, bureaucrats, business representatives and public intellectuals — who are in the Swiss alpine town of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum. They all know what he is talking […]

Guest column: Times-Union editorial on work ignores two major trends, automation and globalization

The editors of The Florida Times-Union recently analyzed the alarming increase in joblessness among American men since 1965.

But they omit two very important economic trends that have affected U.S. employment over the same period: automation and globalization. Instead of providing a critical analysis of the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. or an acknowledgment of the continuing decimation of the middle class, the editors provide an unhelpful moral critique of men who don’t work.

Readers deserve a more far-reaching analysis of the American employment landscape — which has permanently changed — in order to begin thinking about solutions to […]

Automation, not foreign trade, kills American jobs

Automation, not foreign trade, kills American jobs

At the unveiling of the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, the President doubled down on his buy American, hire American campaign promise. Veuer’s Nick Cardona (@nickcardona93) has the story. Buzz60 Donald Trump boasts that his "America First" trade and economic policies are bringing well-paid manufacturing jobs back to America. That’s probably his biggest "deliverable" to Trump voters. But is this claim true?

Trump won the presidency partly because he voiced the anger of American workers about lost jobs and stagnant wages. But in the process, he fundamentally misled the country by claiming that trade is the major cause of job losses, and […]

Oilfield automation may slow job growth — but it doesn’t have to

Oilfield automation may slow job growth — but it doesn't have to

More competitive companies could expand faster and hire more people.

Last week, I wrote about the race to create a digital platform to help drillers deploy and track trucks and other equipment to service their wells in the most efficient possible way, with shorter trips and seamless billing — an Uber for the oilfield, if you will.

Efficiency, of course, means making things cost less. Cost comes in two varieties: Capital and labor. So which one is being cut?In the case of software programs for running oilfield operations, the answer is theoretically both. Service providers will need fewer trucks […]