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The industrial revolution replaced physical laborers, the information revolution will replace mental labor. If both physical and mental labor is replaced by mac
by notfromhere 9y ago
The industrial revolution replaced physical laborers, the information revolution will replace mental labor. If both physical and mental labor is replaced by machines, and you're an average or below average individual, what decent career prospects will you have?
- randomdata 9y agoEvery job has a physical and mental component, so it is difficult to determine exactly where you are drawing the line. But if we say that a mental job is one that is done primarily sitting at a desk, I would suggest that the majority of jobs still fall under the physical labor classification. In fact, the agriculture sector alone, which the industrial revolution changed more than any other, is still about the same size as the entire information sector. To dig deeper: If we look at the fastest growing jobs, according to the BLS, there are very few on the list that are not primarily physical jobs. Of the top 10, there are only three that I would consider as being more mental than physical. If this is what a post-industrial revolution that replaced physical laborers looks like, I'm not sure why we're worried about some future information revolution. And that's without even accounting for the fact that the information industry itself is tiny.
- notfromhere 9y agoi don't think job growth really matters so much as wages. Automation has had a pretty clear impact on middle class wages, while high-level and low-level wage jobs have continued to grow