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I don't get the "back in my grandpappy's day the steam engines left and we still survivded" notion that automation is not killing jobs. Most everybody was emplo

I don't get the "back in my grandpappy's day the steam engines left and we still survivded" notion that automation is not killing jobs. Most everybody was employable back in the 1820s. Simply because of the fact that there was no automation. Train took your horse carriage job? Go work in the fields. If all department stores adopted automated cashiers, the cashier as a retail option as we know it is dead. Killed. If all farms adopt tractors and automatic harvesting machines, the crop picker option as we know it is dead. Killed. Etc. Etc. There will come a time when we can conceive of a new task to be completed, while simultaneously sketching up the automatic machine to complete the task. In fact, this job-killing-automation already exists in the form of the latest and greatest production lines. They were not built to be filled with workers, only product.

MWil 13y ago
"There will come a time when we can conceive of a new task to be completed, while simultaneously sketching up the automatic machine to complete the task." My point throughout this thread has been to say that we are already at the point where if you have a task you should already be thinking of ways to automate it and it's THAT failure that is really killing jobs - not any act of bringing in automation.
philwelch 13y ago
You can still work in the fields if you want to. Farmers are finding lots of their crops withering away and dying at harvest time because we're doing too good a job of keeping illegal immigrants out. People just refuse the work.
- rwallace 13y ago
  I'm curious about that; do you have any references to data on this phenomenon and theories about the cause?
  - philwelch 13y ago
    http://m.siouxcityjournal.com/iowa-farm-labor-shortage-fuels-immigrant-debate/article_db32e2b7-d390-5423-8804-ab2e2a6ec341.html?mobile_touch=true http://m.siouxcityjournal.com/iowa-farm-labor-shortage-fuels... http://www.cnbc.com/id/48725145 http://www.cnbc.com/id/48725145 http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3996502/ http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3996502/ http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324866904578513510141995612?mobile=y http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324866904578513... http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/02/15/2830734/farm-labor-shortages-spread-across.html http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/02/15/2830734/farm-labor-...

MWil 13y ago

"There will come a time when we can conceive of a new task to be completed, while simultaneously sketching up the automatic machine to complete the task." My point throughout this thread has been to say that we are already at the point where if you have a task you should already be thinking of ways to automate it and it's THAT failure that is really killing jobs - not any act of bringing in automation.

philwelch 13y ago

You can still work in the fields if you want to. Farmers are finding lots of their crops withering away and dying at harvest time because we're doing too good a job of keeping illegal immigrants out. People just refuse the work.

rwallace 13y ago
I'm curious about that; do you have any references to data on this phenomenon and theories about the cause?
- philwelch 13y ago
  http://m.siouxcityjournal.com/iowa-farm-labor-shortage-fuels-immigrant-debate/article_db32e2b7-d390-5423-8804-ab2e2a6ec341.html?mobile_touch=true http://m.siouxcityjournal.com/iowa-farm-labor-shortage-fuels... http://www.cnbc.com/id/48725145 http://www.cnbc.com/id/48725145 http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3996502/ http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3996502/ http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324866904578513510141995612?mobile=y http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324866904578513... http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/02/15/2830734/farm-labor-shortages-spread-across.html http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/02/15/2830734/farm-labor-...