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Only if you infer the zero-sum labor fallacy. The demand for labor isn't fixed, and is influenced by the supply. These specific jobs are not economically feas

by bduerst 10y ago

Only if you infer the zero-sum labor fallacy. The demand for labor isn't fixed, and is influenced by the supply. These specific jobs are not economically feasible, but that opens up labor demand for new, sometimes hard to imagine jobs.

Avshalom 10y ago
The demand that has opened up is entry level retail at or near minimum wage though.
- knieveltech 10y ago
  I'm guessing you're being downvoted because you've advanced a notion that goes across the grain of tech industry orthodoxy that is not supported by anecdotal observation from a position of privilege in the tech industry. A quick scan of labor statistics backs your claim however.
- InitialLastName 10y ago
  And medical services: https://www.nurse.com/blog/2016/02/16/u-s-still-headed-for-nurse-shortage/ https://www.nurse.com/blog/2016/02/16/u-s-still-headed-for-n...
09bjb 10y ago
I'm glad someone is bringing this up. I see so many "X job getting automated, jobs are lost, oh no!" portrayed as some novel scenario where jobs are automated and no new jobs are ever made. Automation of routine jobs has been happening for thousands of years, and historically hasn't affected the unemployment rate AT ALL because new hard-tp-imagine jobs replace them. The more I read dig it, the more I don't believe in technological unemployment (i.e. a technology automates a person out of a job, and that person remains forever unemployed). Instead, recently, something seems wrong with the re-hiring process in the global economy. Very lucid discussion (found on HN no less) here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/hh4/the_robots_ai_and_unemployment_antifaq/# http://lesswrong.com/lw/hh4/the_robots_ai_and_unemployment_a...
- bduerst 10y ago
  Yep, and to expand on that, the problem isn't technological automation, but retraining. We're in the middle of an education bubble right now, and while there will always be automation-driven job disruption, whether or not the workers will be able to retrain to meet the new job demand isn't guaranteed. There's an opportunity for relatively low-cost job training, but until the University-degree title system flops, it won't be revered to be the same level of quality.

by bduerst 10y ago

Avshalom 10y ago

The demand that has opened up is entry level retail at or near minimum wage though.

knieveltech 10y ago
I'm guessing you're being downvoted because you've advanced a notion that goes across the grain of tech industry orthodoxy that is not supported by anecdotal observation from a position of privilege in the tech industry. A quick scan of labor statistics backs your claim however.
InitialLastName 10y ago
And medical services: https://www.nurse.com/blog/2016/02/16/u-s-still-headed-for-nurse-shortage/ https://www.nurse.com/blog/2016/02/16/u-s-still-headed-for-n...

09bjb 10y ago

I'm glad someone is bringing this up. I see so many "X job getting automated, jobs are lost, oh no!" portrayed as some novel scenario where jobs are automated and no new jobs are ever made. Automation of routine jobs has been happening for thousands of years, and historically hasn't affected the unemployment rate AT ALL because new hard-tp-imagine jobs replace them. The more I read dig it, the more I don't believe in technological unemployment (i.e. a technology automates a person out of a job, and that person remains forever unemployed). Instead, recently, something seems wrong with the re-hiring process in the global economy. Very lucid discussion (found on HN no less) here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/hh4/the_robots_ai_and_unemployment_antifaq/# http://lesswrong.com/lw/hh4/the_robots_ai_and_unemployment_a...

bduerst 10y ago
Yep, and to expand on that, the problem isn't technological automation, but retraining. We're in the middle of an education bubble right now, and while there will always be automation-driven job disruption, whether or not the workers will be able to retrain to meet the new job demand isn't guaranteed. There's an opportunity for relatively low-cost job training, but until the University-degree title system flops, it won't be revered to be the same level of quality.