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Looks to me like all of those articles are about the Louisville, Kentucky GE Plant where they negotiated lower pay for their workers. I'd say that's an example

Looks to me like all of those articles are about the Louisville, Kentucky GE Plant where they negotiated lower pay for their workers. I'd say that's an example, not a trend. Companies have been looking at overall cost of production for a long time. That's how they've calculated margins and filed a 10-K for the past 50 years. The bottom line is until overseas workers demand increased standards of living or US consumers show a willingness to pay a higher price for locally manufactured goods, this trend will continue. My question is, what does the end-game look like for a fully automated economy? You're either an entrepreneur with a fully automated supply chain, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and finance organization producing a good that is highly demanded by other fully automated businesses, or you starve?

tzakrajs 10y ago
You probably could be given charity and live on a compound provided as humanitarian assistance by the automator oligarchs. "Managing the human problem"
AnthonyMouse 10y ago
Automation lowers costs. That means either things cost less so you can make a living working fewer hours at lower wages, or companies are more profitable and we can tax them to pay for social assistance programs.
- thatfrenchguy 10y ago
  Or bigger executive bonuses.
  - mstolpm 10y ago
    So, the next step should be to tax executives and their bonuses accordingly.
icantdrive55 10y ago
I perceive a bleak future. I was suprised to learn that the main reason Coal Miners are out of work is because of mining automation. I perceive a world where people just stop buying. Yes--the wealthy will still buy their toys, but their will be a time where so much missery/homelessness; they won't be able to enjoy the luxuries of wealth. Even right now--I feel weird eating in a resturant while a guy outside is hungry. I feel we will need to open up federal, state, and county land; and allow free camping. (They have made it literally a crime to be homeless.) I feel a Basic Income will need to be seriously looked into. I hope we never turn into a country that just overlooks the misery around them. Some days, I feel we have crossed that line.
- mistermann 10y ago
  > I feel we will need to open up federal, state, and county land; and allow free camping. I agree, I predict within the next 10 years or so we're going to start seeing some trend of people moving out into the wilderness due to downright necessity.
gshulegaard 10y ago
The GE move was the most widely publicized/covered one that I can recall off the top of my head, but the Atlantic article is more detailed than just GE. Also, the Forbes title is literally: > Why Apple Is Bringing Manufacturing Back To The United States I highly recommend reading some of the articles linked since they do explore some of the harder to quantify metrics (such as the maintenance tail of products manufactured in the US vs China) and how they affected GEs choice to move manufacturing. So while I think in general your observation: > That's how they've calculated margins and filed a 10-K for the past 50 years. holds true, I think there is some gray area where harder to quantify and measure metrics are becoming more observable. And it's this "new" information that is potentially having substantial influence on these larger corporations decisions resulting in moving manufacturing back to the US. I, with my light familiarity with the most basic concepts of Economics, was particularly intrigued by the assertion that GE may have exhibited more long-term thinking since it's widely accepted that businesses operate and make decisions in the short-term. This short-term thinking leading to many sub-optimal market results...but that was just the interesting thing I took away in passing. A choice quote from the Atlantic piece sort of illustrating this: > Harry Moser, an MIT-trained engineer, spent decades running a business that made machine tools. After retiring, he started an organization called the Reshoring Initiative in 2010, to help companies assess where to make their products. “The way we see it,” says Moser, “about 60 percent of the companies that offshored manufacturing didn’t really do the math. They looked only at the labor rate—they didn’t look at the hidden costs.” Your question about a fully automated economy is interesting, but I don't have good references off the top of my head to point you toward...sorry :)

tzakrajs 10y ago

You probably could be given charity and live on a compound provided as humanitarian assistance by the automator oligarchs. "Managing the human problem"

AnthonyMouse 10y ago

Automation lowers costs. That means either things cost less so you can make a living working fewer hours at lower wages, or companies are more profitable and we can tax them to pay for social assistance programs.

thatfrenchguy 10y ago
Or bigger executive bonuses.
- mstolpm 10y ago
  So, the next step should be to tax executives and their bonuses accordingly.

icantdrive55 10y ago

I perceive a bleak future. I was suprised to learn that the main reason Coal Miners are out of work is because of mining automation. I perceive a world where people just stop buying. Yes--the wealthy will still buy their toys, but their will be a time where so much missery/homelessness; they won't be able to enjoy the luxuries of wealth. Even right now--I feel weird eating in a resturant while a guy outside is hungry. I feel we will need to open up federal, state, and county land; and allow free camping. (They have made it literally a crime to be homeless.) I feel a Basic Income will need to be seriously looked into. I hope we never turn into a country that just overlooks the misery around them. Some days, I feel we have crossed that line.

mistermann 10y ago
> I feel we will need to open up federal, state, and county land; and allow free camping. I agree, I predict within the next 10 years or so we're going to start seeing some trend of people moving out into the wilderness due to downright necessity.

gshulegaard 10y ago

The GE move was the most widely publicized/covered one that I can recall off the top of my head, but the Atlantic article is more detailed than just GE. Also, the Forbes title is literally: > Why Apple Is Bringing Manufacturing Back To The United States I highly recommend reading some of the articles linked since they do explore some of the harder to quantify metrics (such as the maintenance tail of products manufactured in the US vs China) and how they affected GEs choice to move manufacturing. So while I think in general your observation: > That's how they've calculated margins and filed a 10-K for the past 50 years. holds true, I think there is some gray area where harder to quantify and measure metrics are becoming more observable. And it's this "new" information that is potentially having substantial influence on these larger corporations decisions resulting in moving manufacturing back to the US. I, with my light familiarity with the most basic concepts of Economics, was particularly intrigued by the assertion that GE may have exhibited more long-term thinking since it's widely accepted that businesses operate and make decisions in the short-term. This short-term thinking leading to many sub-optimal market results...but that was just the interesting thing I took away in passing. A choice quote from the Atlantic piece sort of illustrating this: > Harry Moser, an MIT-trained engineer, spent decades running a business that made machine tools. After retiring, he started an organization called the Reshoring Initiative in 2010, to help companies assess where to make their products. “The way we see it,” says Moser, “about 60 percent of the companies that offshored manufacturing didn’t really do the math. They looked only at the labor rate—they didn’t look at the hidden costs.” Your question about a fully automated economy is interesting, but I don't have good references off the top of my head to point you toward...sorry :)