Tag: productivity

How Technology Can Defuse the Demographic Time Bomb

How Technology Can Defuse the Demographic Time Bomb

As people live longer and working age populations face hardship, technology could help ease the growing dependency burden. Society is currently faced with two converging phenomena. On the one hand, rapidly aging populations are supported by a shrinking working age population. On the other, those in work are increasingly being replaced by machines as result of the technological revolution. Yet these subjects are rarely discussed together, which is surprising given that technology has important implications for work and employment and the problem of old-age dependency is, as a matter of fact, a problem of work and production. As a […]

The Missing Political Debate Over the Digital Economy

The Missing Political Debate Over the Digital Economy

This U.S. presidential election season is leading us to rethink a lot of norms. But while it feels like a lot of our political conventional wisdom is getting turned on its head, one thing that hasn’t appeared to move forward is how we talk about the economy. We’re focused on jobs, but we’re skipping a necessary discussion of how the digital economy is shaping those jobs. The content of the campaigns still seems largely rooted in the 20th century while much of our work is rushing to meet the demands of the 21st.

The candidates are talking about cybersecurity (indeed […]

Debate: will robots fuel inequality?

Gerald Huff and Jerry Kaplan debate whether robots will leave us all worse off Automation is coming. No: Jerry Kaplan

Computer scientist, entrepreneur and author of Humans Need Not Apply

First and foremost, robots are a form of automation, and automation is the substitution of capital for labour. Historically, automation first advances the interests of the people who invest in it, before the positive impact is felt more broadly across society. In other words, with any new technologies there are winners and losers, even if in the long run we are better off on average.Just as mechanical looms […]

Automation Scare is Real! Expected to Kill 69% Of Jobs In India: World Bank

Automation Scare is Real! Expected to Kill 69% Of Jobs In India: World Bank

“I can have no consideration for machinery which is meant either to enrich the few at the expense of the many, of without cause to displace the useful labour of many” – Mahatma Gandhi

World Bank has reconfirmed our fears and apprehensions about the future of jobs and the extent to which automation and technology can influence it.

At a recent event, World Bank President Jim Kim said that as per their research, 69% of jobs in India is at threat, due to automation and technology . This means that in the next few years, 7 out of 10 jobs would […]

Yes, Machines Will Take Over Your Jobs

Yes, Machines Will Take Over Your Jobs

“What do you do?”

Humans have been asking this question since the beginning of time. For some, it’s a moment of pride and an opportunity to list their achievements, and for some, it’s a dreadful question that haunts their life. For the rest, it doesn’t matter for they look towards it just as a mean of getting a sustainable life; they do or not is a different story altogether. And soon it wouldn’t matter to you as well because you probably wouldn’t have one.

A job or whatever it is that you do for a living is placed so high […]

Lack of Demand Is the Economy’s Problem, Not Automation

Dean Baker is an economist and the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research . He is on Twitter .

While we hear endless tales of driverless cars and robots displacing human workers, in the real world we are seeing the exact opposite. The last decade has been a period of extraordinarily low productivity growth. Productivity growth has averaged less than 1.1 percent annually from 2006 to 2016. This compares to almost 3.0 percent in the decade from 1995 to 2005 and also in the quarter century boom from 1947 to 1973. If we generated more demand through […]

The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, And Status In The Twenty-first Century

The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, And Status In The Twenty-first Century

Ryan Avent Ryan Avent, thank you very much for joining us today. You’ve got a new book out entitled ‘ The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-first Century ’, and it addresses one of the hottest topics around at the moment – the digital revolution, and what it means for the future of work.

So, what do you think? What does it mean?

Well, I think it means big change. I think the starting point of the book is that the digital revolution actually is probably going to be as transformative as the industrial […]

Automated Inequality

Automated Inequality

Humans have been here before—at least three times before, in fact. At first, it was steam and water power; then came electricity and mass production; and then IT and computerization. Each time, Joseph Schumpeter’s “gale of creative destruction” blustered as rapid advances in technology destroyed some jobs, paved the way for new lines of work, and ultimately provided enhanced productivity and lifestyles for the majority. Researchers predict that over the next decade or so, emerging technological breakthroughs will once again fundamentally alter jobs and manufacturing processes around the world—but this time, the consequences could be drastically different.

There is little […]

Are trade agreements good for the U.S. economy?

Are trade agreements good for the U.S. economy?

The Congressional Budget Office isn’t exactly offering a ringing endorsement of trade agreements like NAFTA.

Such pacts have “had relatively small positive effects” on American trade and its economy, according to a report from the federal agency, which analyzes economic and budget issues on behalf of lawmakers. The downside? Workers in industries facing tougher competition can end up out of work, sometimes permanently, CBO notes.

Trade agreements have become a lightning rod in the presidential election, with Republican candidate Donald Trump declaring that the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement “has destroyed our country,” and suggesting that if elected he would […]

Is a Robot After Your Job?

Is a Robot After Your Job?

With the economy the way it is, most manufacturing workers are afraid that their company will move out of the country, or that someone who will work for less will get their job. Now, there is another fear—is a robot after your job? In some factories, robots already outnumber the human workers. The general factory workforce is going through radical changes with more robots being employed at a vigorous pace. How will this affect your job? An Oxford study reports that 47% of all jobs will be taken over by a robot within the next twenty years.

Robotic technology is […]