As industries start to become more automated and replace real workers with equipment or automation, the number of jobs available in the marketplace will continue to decrease.
The common mantra in response to this is that low skilled jobs aren’t that important and workers of these jobs should go find a lucrative high paying-high skilled job instead.
It sounds good on paper but the reality is, these jobs don’t exist in the numbers that workers are being replaced by robotics and automation — not even close.
As the unemployment rate rises, those low skilled workers and their families will continue to suffer.
I know, I know — it’s their fault right? They should go to college and increase their skills so they can get a better job .
However, there are a limited number of these jobs available, not nearly enough to employ everyone that wants a job.
No matter how many skills someone has, no matter how much education they receive — they’re still going to be in a highly competitive market for a limited number of jobs.
At the end of the day, someone is going home without a job.
Meanwhile, these unemployed “outcasts” are looked down upon for not being able to find a job while the automation / robotics companies rape, pillage, and plunder the population by selling these systems.
Of course, we all “benefit” because now products are cheaper, but let’s be realistic here.
If the cost of a hamburger goes from $2 to $1 or the cost of a toothbrush from $3 to $2 thanks to automation and mass production, does it really matter?
You decide.
Would you rather make $400 a week and pay $2 for a hamburger or make $0 a week and pay $1 for a hamburger?
Having a job or source of income is everything in a free market non-socialist society like America. If you haven’t noticed we are “slowly or rapidly” heading toward socialism because it’s quickly becoming the solution of last resort to the income inequality in America. There is a big push for free healthcare, free college, more welfare, and other benefits.
Everyone is stuck on free market principles like freedom and prosperity for all, and while at some point, before mass production and automation, that may have been a real possibility, it’s not realistic today.
We have such a high level of automation in our society now that we went from an abundance of jobs to a scarcity of jobs. In the old days there weren’t really big businesses and almost everyone was employed in their own business, small business, or family business.
This has all changed in the last 100 years which means the principles that our country were founded on (capitalism and free markets) over 230 years ago are no longer relevant.
Sorry Adam Smith but we no longer have limited government and the constitution has failed us, but I did appreciate reading The Wealth of Nations.
This isn’t solely due to market bubbles or poor economic regulation from our government (tax increases, minimum wage hikes, bailouts, quantitative easing, or other factors that could shut down small businesses and cause job loss).
This problem has a lot to do with automation and our global marketplace.
All those jobs that can’t be fully automated (yet) like programming or high tech jobs are being slowly exported overseas to people that will work for less. Basically, any job that can be exported is being exported and any job that can be automated by robotics or technology is being automated, this is the real America today.
If you think things are tough now in the job market or you still believe in trickle down economics, then you’re not looking at the big picture.
In 10-20 years we could see fully automated fast food industries run by just a custodian that monitors the machines. In just 10-20 years all of the fast food industry workers could be replaced by machines.
It is not hard to envision walking up to a McDonalds, selecting your order from a terminal, paying with a credit card, and waiting a few minutes while a machine cooks and prepares your meal to perfection.
In this scenario a single person with a small team could manage a large quantity of fast food restaurants in a very large radius, imagine if a couple of people could run all of the McDonald’s in a 100 mile radius.
These companies exist to make a profit for their shareholders, and they almost solely exist for this purpose. People don’t go into business to lose money or not make enough return on their investment. They will not think twice about firing everyone and replacing them with automated systems.
These systems don’t show up late for work, don’t give attitude, and aren’t prone to human error. You can thank wage increases, employee regulations, and business taxes for this recent push towards automation.
In a Utopian society this automation would free up everyone’s time and make life easier, but in America, that’s not what is happening.
The disparity between poverty, middle class, and the ultra rich will just grow rampantly to the point where the businesses, their shareholders, and their employees will be holding all of the wealth.
The unemployed work force will have almost nothing as more and more jobs are replaced by machines and unemployment surges.
At this point I believe it truly does become necessary for wealth redistribution, something I thought I would have never said.
The point of technology in a Utopian society is so that everyone is fed, clothed, housed, and has all they need to live. As this type of society improves, technology and utilization of available resources allows them to have more wealth and freedom.
If we are going to continuously replace workers and automate things just for the sake of a profit for a small percentage of individuals, we are doing the exact opposite of utopia and leading ourselves to disaster or dystopia.
We are leading ourselves to a world of starvation, despair, homelessness, and complete destruction. What then will you tell the majority of the population that is now unemployed because they were replaced by machines?
What jobs will be created to employ such a massive workforce once the service sector and food industries become fully automated?
Where else do you find work?
Can 300 million people really make a living programming these machines or working for the companies in producing more automation?
I think not.
If the jobs available at companies producing automation are growing they are not growing faster than the workers they are replacing.
If a company benefits by replacing workers via automation or robots then these companies should be taxed to compensate for the loss of jobs they create. Perhaps some type of worker loss analysis could be conducted for each automated system.
How else can we resolve this issue for future generations?
The short term solution is that these profits need to be split and distributed to those that cannot find work.
I’m not talking about just handing out welfare to lazy people that don’t want to work. If we have people with the right education and skills that are able to and are actively seeking work, then they should “qualify” for redistribution of wealth benefits as long as they continue to seek work.
It is an injustice to live in the richest country on earth but remain in poverty solely because you haven’t been selected yet in a job market where the qualified workforce severely outnumbers the available jobs.
It is time to rethink what it means to be an American and to start protecting future generations from a robotic apocalypse.
In a way we are quickly heading toward the same fate from the movie I, Robot but instead of Artificial Intelligence being in charge, it will be the ultra rich leading a robot army.
Please tell me what you think and leave a comment below, thanks for reading!
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