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Manufacturing jobs are disappearing but real manufacturing output has actually been steadily increasing over the last 50 years.
by cjy 16y ago
Manufacturing jobs are disappearing but real manufacturing output has actually been steadily increasing over the last 50 years.
- lispygem 16y agoYeah, imagine a production line hooked up directly to a web-based storefront where people are buying things to build. We're not far from it, and when this happens it probably won't be in China.
- jbooth 16y agoVery true, but still not a great place to be. Whether the boogeymen are robots or chinese workers, not having a market for manufacturing labor is a bad position for an economy.
- dstorrs 16y agoSerious question: why? I understand an economy that does not produce any of its own goods is in a jam -- it's an external critical dependency that can be wielded like a club against you. But if you have adequate internal production, what does it matter if it's done by humans, robots, or hyperintelligent cyborg orangutans? It may take a generation or so, but the people who would have been manufacturing labor will be absorbed into other markets -- or should be, as I understand it.
- jbooth 16y agoShould be? Why? If "absorbed into other markets" means "wal-mart greeter", then that's bad. I'm all about efficiency and won't advocate make-work jobs, but if you don't have a base of demand in the form of a healthy middle class, it's hard to find people to buy the goods that you do manufacture.
- c1sc0 16y agoI'm not sure how that affects the economy, but it certainly is a bad thing for a country. Not everyone can be a white-collar button-pusher; if no labor-based jobs exist anymore you'll make a significant portion of your citizens very unhappy