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I have read a number of growing articles about automation and the death of the jobs markets as we know them. In the U.S., we have kiosks that ring up our groceries without a person – one staffmember to fix problems for 6-8 lanes. We now have added these “kiosks” in eating establishments like Panera Bread, McDonalds, and such.
I, for one, will not use them. I won’t eliminate jobs.
But this post isn’t about that exactly.. I have read that as a society, with growing automation – vehicles driving themselves, robots becoming more commonplace, that jobs as we know them will go away. People will be left with time on their hands and have to learn how to manage having extra time.
But, how will people afford to live without jobs? People that are not inherently wealthy, or do not possess land?And how do you feel about machines running everything and substituting for people?
I dunno, there are so very many questions that are associated with all of this. I’m just wondering if anyone has given this any serious thought? The idea scares me. I like the idea that people – esp Americans – wouldn’t have to work themselves to death (Right To Work states, for instance, have eliminated our breaks and lunches so we work 7-8 hours straight)… but sooo very many implications.
The automation thing generally isn’t covered well in the media, there will always be some jobs that require humans. Which would be the jobs of designing and repairing the robots when they are broken. It is possible to automate these things too, but it quite far outside of our current technology. And it would be very dangerous to completely rely on machines for everything.
In the U.S., we have kiosks that ring up our groceries without a person – one staffmember to fix problems for 6-8 lanes.
Those are very common in the UK, every supermarket has had them for few years now.
vehicles driving themselves
I’m not sure that self driving cars will ever actually happen. The technology for them has existed for awhile, and it is a massive improvment over human drivers. The problem is that for them to work properly would require a complete ban on human drivers, who can’t communicate with the other automated cars. This would meet a lot of resistance from groups such as taxi drivers, lorry drives and people who own classic cars. It would also require a lot of infrastructure work in the UK to replace roundabouts with itersections, which are much more efficent for robots as they don’t need traffic lights.
But, how will people afford to live without jobs? People that are not inherently wealthy, or do not possess land?
As for the ecconomic aspect, I don’t know what the solution is. Left leaning people would propose that a universal income would solve everything. But history has shown that doesn’t work, as there is no incentive for people to contribute anything, or to a good job if their income is guarenteed anyway.
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