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In many cases abroad. Apple (among other tech companies) indirectly created 1.3 million jobs at Foxconn in China, for instance. Most economic models (includin

In many cases abroad. Apple (among other tech companies) indirectly created 1.3 million jobs at Foxconn in China, for instance. Most economic models (including the Ball State U "study" by Michael J. Hicks and Srikant Devara, MBA) that counted "jobs lost to robots" define productivity as GDP/number of employees employed in America. This indicates upon shallow inspection that Apple, for instance, has a very high productivity (high contribution to GDP/employees). Or, in other words, economists' models used to declare an impending magic robot revolution right now are defining the 1.2 million Foxconn employees used to make iPhones as robots in their assumptions. Foxconn itself regularly threatens to replace its 1.2 million employees with magic robots. For instance, see this threat from 2011 made at an employee dance party for some bizarre reason: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/foxconn-to-replace-human-workers-with-one-million-robots http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robot... Since then they increased their headcount implying that the threat was made for some other reason than it being say, the truth.

mattnewton 10y ago
So the magic robot scenario is more expensive to implement than the Foxconn workforce, but if we were to implement more protectionist policies though that made manufacture in china untenable, would the magic robots still be more expensive than American labour? Edit: Also, maybe Foxconn was on track to grow by even more, but used robots instead. It's not necessarily the case that greater automation isn't coming or that more people will always be hired; they seem to be holding their breath for the moment that robots can replace all the people and actively investing in the area in the meantime [1] [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966
- crdoconnor 10y ago
  So... "magic robots aren't real but just you wait they soon WILL be if you take away my dirt cheap labor" theory? >Edit: Also, maybe Foxconn was on track to grow by even more, but used robots instead. Indeed. I eagerly await Foxconn's one million magic robots promised in 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015 and again in 2016.

mattnewton 10y ago

So the magic robot scenario is more expensive to implement than the Foxconn workforce, but if we were to implement more protectionist policies though that made manufacture in china untenable, would the magic robots still be more expensive than American labour? Edit: Also, maybe Foxconn was on track to grow by even more, but used robots instead. It's not necessarily the case that greater automation isn't coming or that more people will always be hired; they seem to be holding their breath for the moment that robots can replace all the people and actively investing in the area in the meantime [1] [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966

crdoconnor 10y ago
So... "magic robots aren't real but just you wait they soon WILL be if you take away my dirt cheap labor" theory? >Edit: Also, maybe Foxconn was on track to grow by even more, but used robots instead. Indeed. I eagerly await Foxconn's one million magic robots promised in 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015 and again in 2016.