Tag: manufactur

Automation: The Real Killer of American Jobs – Part 2.

Part 2 of a 2 part series for the Good Men Project.

In Part 1 I stated that the real job killer of American manufacturing is robots, not the Chinese or Mexicans. Manufacturing is a good starting point to look at the impact of technology because manufacturing accounts for 12.5% of total U.S. GDP and nearly 9% of U.S. employment according to the most recent report from the Economic Policy Institute.

As innovation in automation and technology continue to develop, robotics will become cheaper, artificial intelligence will improve, and more sectors of our economy will experience similar transformations to those […]

Those 100,000 Jobs Amazon’s Creating Are Exactly What Blue-Collar Workers Need

Those 100,000 Jobs Amazon's Creating Are Exactly What Blue-Collar Workers Need

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CREDIT: Getty Images If you hadn’t heard, there’s a good chance just about every manual laborer in America could be replaced by robots sooner or later.

Silicon Valley is quickly developing new machines with the physical abilities and artificial intelligence to do many of the repetitive jobs every day Americans hold today. It’s called automation , and it’s already replacing human workers in industries from manufacturing to fast food to long-haul trucking.That’s why Amazon’s announcement that it will create 100,000 U.S. jobs is so significant.Whether or not President-elect Donald Trump had anything with creating these jobs, as […]

Workplace of the future may require new safety net

Workplace of the future may require new safety net

Buy Photo This past election we heard much about the loss of manufacturing jobs. Columnist George Will puts these job losses in perspective in a recent article . Will cites a Ball State University study. From 2000 to 2010, only 13 percent of manufacturing job losses were due to trade. Productivity improvements accounted for over 85 percent of the losses.

Many fear that automation and robotics will cause economic dislocation for working people. Andy Stern addresses this topic in his book “ Raising the Floor : How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream.” […]

Workplace of the future may require new safety net

Workplace of the future may require new safety net

Buy Photo This past election we heard much about the loss of manufacturing jobs. Columnist George Will puts these job losses in perspective in a recent article . Will cites a Ball State University study. From 2000 to 2010, only 13 percent of manufacturing job losses were due to trade. Productivity improvements accounted for over 85 percent of the losses.

Many fear that automation and robotics will cause economic dislocation for working people. Andy Stern addresses this topic in his book “ Raising the Floor : How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream.” […]

Why Trump Doesn’t Tweet About Automation

Why Trump Doesn’t Tweet About Automation

Since winning the U.S. presidency in November, Donald Trump has tweeted frequently about job loss. He’s railed against corporations that plan to move jobs to Mexico or China. He’s taken credit for persuading companies, including Ford and Carrier Corporation, for keeping jobs at home. He’s been unalterably opposed to both outsourcing and big trade deals like NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) because of the U.S. job losses they might engender.

Automation, however, does not seem to be on his mind at all. He doesn’t talk or tweet about it, nor does he complain about job losses that result from […]

Why Trump Doesn’t Tweet About Automation

Why Trump Doesn’t Tweet About Automation

Since winning the U.S. presidency in November, Donald Trump has tweeted frequently about job loss. He’s railed against corporations that plan to move jobs to Mexico or China. He’s taken credit for persuading companies, including Ford and Carrier Corporation, for keeping jobs at home. He’s been unalterably opposed to both outsourcing and big trade deals like NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) because of the U.S. job losses they might engender.

Automation, however, does not seem to be on his mind at all. He doesn’t talk or tweet about it, nor does he complain about job losses that result from […]

Sorry, Trump voters: Those factory jobs aren’t coming back — because they don’t exist anymore

Sorry, Trump voters: Those factory jobs aren’t coming back — because they don’t exist anymore

(Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson/shutterstock/Salon) When Donald Trump moves into the White House later this month, there will be great expectations resting on his ability to make good on one of the central planks of his campaign: Restoring America’s industrial glory days and “bringing back” jobs. In areas that have been hit particularly hard by deindustrialization, like the Rust Belt — which ultimately gave the election to Trump — working-class swing voters will be anxiously waiting for the president to “make America great again,” which to them means bringing back decent paying jobs along with some stability.

Unfortunately for America’s struggling working […]

Robots will destroy our jobs – and we’re not ready for it

The McDonald’s on the corner of Third Avenue and 58th Street in New York City doesn’t look all that different from any of the fast-food chain’s other locations across the country. Inside, however, hungry patrons are welcomed not by a cashier waiting to take their order, but by a “Create Your Taste” kiosk – an automated touch-screen system that allows customers to create their own burgers without interacting with another human being.

It’s impossible to say exactly how many jobs have been lost by the deployment of the automated kiosks – McDonald’s has been predictably reluctant to release numbers – […]

Trump’s push for jobs should not be at the cost of killing jobs in developing countries

The US’ effort to create more jobs at home should not be done at the cost of killing jobs in developing countries such as China and Mexico. Taking back manufacturing jobs from developing countries will not improve US employment but instead will harm the growth of developing nations and backfire on its own economy. The US should work with China and Mexico to create opportunities that are reciprocal, otherwise the US’ global leadership will wobble.

On Monday, Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma Yun met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss a plan to attract 1 million small US businesses to […]

Automation + Jobs: Not a Zero-Sum Equation

Automation + Jobs: Not a Zero-Sum Equation

There’s been no shortage of hand wringing over the job costs of automation—and it’s not without cause. Automated devices are increasingly replacing people in all sorts of occupations. Just as a long list of other technologies have done before. Because dramatic workplace transformations do not occur often, it’s easy to see such shifts as zero-sum occurrences and overlook the new options presented as the familiar ones fade away.

The last time such a major shift took place was during the transition from an agricultural-based economy to an industrial-based economy. And though the tractor and other automated farm equipment did put […]