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Traditional elite jobs such as sales, banking (not trading), and management seem to have also resisted automation for the time being.

• ska 10y ago
  None of those jobs are categorically elite - they have a small fraction of elite positions. One plausible scenario is that in a lot of areas the "elite" positions will stay somewhat stable, but there will be a huge drop in demand for 2nd tier and below.
  • ska 10y ago
    Also note that this could have a deep effect in itself though. Consider that for every biglaw partner there are what, 1000s of other lawyers? But every one of those partners came up in a cohort of at least dozens if not hundreds who dropped out along the way. And those are just the ones that made it through the first filters. Without the work to support and train on a pyramid like this, they'll have to find a new scheme to decide who rises to the top.
• monknomo 10y ago
  Assuming massive automation, and accompanying decreased employment and people-with-money, who is going to the bank, who is a prospective customer and who needs managed? Given sufficient layoffs the demand for these middleman jobs will also decline. I mean, a workplace run by people needs a manager for about every five people. A workplace that runs robots needs a manager. Salespeople only matter if there is someone with money to sell to. I suspect the direction we're going as far as they are concerned are automated goods warehouses that people buy from with self-checkout and a bored troubleshooter/security drone standing by the door. No more shoe salespeople. That leaves enterprise sales, which is a comparatively small footprint, in terms of jobs. As to bankers, sure they'll be around, but I don't see traditional bankers to be exactly a growing field and they aren't really dying for new employees. Nope, we're all headed towards serfdom, no two ways about it
  • VLM 10y ago
    When I shopped for hardware at Circuit City I had commissioned salespeople hovering over me who knew nothing about electronics, computers, or hardware but wanted to sell me extended maintenance plans. Then I shopped for hardware at Best Buy and Comp USA and they had sales clerks who shoved boxes on the shelves matching the UPC code, but they didn't even pretend to know anything. It was somewhat less annoying than Circuit City. Now I shop for hardware at Amazon because I'm addicted to the free shipping and if its not significantly cheaper at tigerdirect or whatever in another browser tab, well, I'm not going to make a special order. Amazon doesn't have salespeople. I've never talked to a human at Amazon and probably never will. Its even less annoying than Best Buy! Similar experience with banking. I'm old old old compared to the stereotypical HN demographic and when I was a young graduate I would take my physical paper check to an old fashioned local bank (long since merged into international megacorp) and a friend of mine's roommate was my cashier and I'd deposit that paper check into my account and get a paper receipt. Around the most recent financial crash I moved to a credit union and with direct deposits and ATMs I haven't been inside the building in the decade since... If you assume your average bank user will only spend an hour every decade moving to a new bank/CU, then America doesn't need many bankers, does it?