Are robots hurting job growth?

Are robots hurting job growth?

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MB

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26 Jan 13

I watched a 60 minutes program that implied that there would be less jobs in the future because of robotics. I don't know if there is any truth to it, so I thought I'd present this question to the forum and hope for insight from all of you.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138922n

K

Germany

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26 Jan 13

People have been predicting this since the start of the Industrial Revolution. They were wrong, of course, since the supply of jobs is in principle unlimited; there is work available as long as people want something done that involves other people.

Naturally Right

Somewhere Else

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26 Jan 13

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
People have been predicting this since the start of the Industrial Revolution. They were wrong, of course, since the supply of jobs is in principle unlimited; there is work available as long as people want something done that involves other people.
In a capitalist system, there is only work available if the owners of capital can make money off it.

K

Germany

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26 Jan 13

Originally posted by no1marauder
In a capitalist system, there is only work available if the owners of capital can make money off it.
In a "capitalist system" there are also government jobs and there is a government controlling the rules of the market which will heavily influence the amount of jobs available in the free market.

n

The Catbird's Seat

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Originally posted by no1marauder
In a capitalist system, there is only work available if the owners of capital can make money off it.
And money is made when work is done more efficiently and productively. Therefore robots ultimately create better paying jobs, and free labor to provide for other human wants with new products and services.

jb

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27 Jan 13

Originally posted by Metal Brain
I watched a 60 minutes program that implied that there would be less jobs in the future because of robotics. I don't know if there is any truth to it, so I thought I'd present this question to the forum and hope for insight from all of you.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138922n
I wouldn't be a bit circumcised but what the influx of messican labor put a big slowdown on robotics.

w

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27 Jan 13

Originally posted by no1marauder
In a capitalist system, there is only work available if the owners of capital can make money off it.
In a noncapitalist system, if work is available then everyone is going into debt.

P

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28 Jan 13

Originally posted by Metal Brain
I watched a 60 minutes program that implied that there would be less jobs in the future because of robotics. I don't know if there is any truth to it, so I thought I'd present this question to the forum and hope for insight from all of you.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138922n
Sounds like a Ludite related argument. New technology creates new industries, hence new job opportunities. As a recently retierd teacher, I strongly feel we are neither educating nor training our children as well as we could or should. There is a distinct difference between education and training.

s
Democracy Advocate

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28 Jan 13

Originally posted by Metal Brain
I watched a 60 minutes program that implied that there would be less jobs in the future because of robotics. I don't know if there is any truth to it, so I thought I'd present this question to the forum and hope for insight from all of you.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138922n
Think of all the jobs in robot repair!

MB

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28 Jan 13
1 edit

Originally posted by spruce112358
Think of all the jobs in robot repair!
It seems to me that robot repair would be less employment. If it wasn't it would cost more to use robots.

I think the question here is this: Will increased profits to the business that uses robots be spent and result in the same number of jobs elsewhere?

I often wonder if machines like Eli Whitney's cotton gin did more to end slavery than any ethical movement. More unemployment leads to less demand for labor, which leads to a lower wage, which makes economic slavery more practical than forced slavery. I sometimes wonder if the industrial revolution made forced slavery obsolete. Economic slavery may have just made more sense to those that like to exploit others.

w

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28 Jan 13

So what exactly does a robotic resume look like?

K

Germany

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28 Jan 13

Originally posted by whodey
In a noncapitalist system, if work is available then everyone is going into debt.
In Dutch this comment would be described as making as much sense as hitting a drum kit with a dick.

s
Don't Like It Leave

Walking the earth.

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Originally posted by normbenign
And money is made when work is done more efficiently and productively. Therefore robots ultimately create better paying jobs, and free labor to provide for other human wants with new products and services.
I agree with you, but the growth of better-paying jobs trails the elimination of current jobs, by years and sometimes decades. So it's small consolation that those better-paying jobs come along.

On a much happier note, the pace of jobs being repatriated in the US is accelerating rapidly.

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28 Jan 13

Originally posted by Metal Brain
It seems to me that robot repair would be less employment. If it wasn't it would cost more to use robots.

I think the question here is this: Will increased profits to the business that uses robots be spent and result in the same number of jobs elsewhere?

I often wonder if machines like Eli Whitney's cotton gin did more to end slavery than any eth ...[text shortened]... obsolete. Economic slavery may have just made more sense to those that like to exploit others.
" However, like many inventors, Whitney (who died in 1825) could not have foreseen the ways in which his invention would change society for the worse. The most significant of these was the growth of slavery. While it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing seeds, it did not reduce the need for slaves to grow and pick the cotton. In fact, the opposite occurred. Cotton growing became so profitable for the planters that it greatly increased their demand for both land and slave labor. In 1790 there were six slave states; in 1860 there were 15. From 1790 until Congress banned the importation of slaves from Africa in 1808, Southerners imported 80,000 Africans. By 1860 approximately one in three Southerners was a slave.

"Because of the cotton gin, slaves now labored on ever-larger plantations where work was more regimented and relentless. As large plantations spread into the Southwest, the price of slaves and land inhibited the growth of cities and industries. In the 1850s seven-eighths of all immigrants settled in the North, where they found 72% of the nation's manufacturing capacity. The growth of the "peculiar institution" was affecting many aspects of Southern life."

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent/

s
Democracy Advocate

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28 Jan 13

Originally posted by Metal Brain
It seems to me that robot repair would be less employment. If it wasn't it would cost more to use robots.

I think the question here is this: Will increased profits to the business that uses robots be spent and result in the same number of jobs elsewhere?

I often wonder if machines like Eli Whitney's cotton gin did more to end slavery than any eth ...[text shortened]... obsolete. Economic slavery may have just made more sense to those that like to exploit others.
I'm sure people worried that the slaves would have no jobs, though.