Labor

They're coming to take your jobs, devaluate your labor, and avoid paying taxes. Since the late 1800's, the number of Americans working in farms has dwindled. In fact, while agriculture was a major employer in the 1940's, it's been far surpassed for American employment by other industries. I'm talking, of course, of robots. That's right, robots. Two MIT professors, for example[1], insist that the automation and computerization of various industries is what's behind the de-coupling of wealth generated compared to labor put in (hint: it's not the labor that's increasing). It's happened in the past, with Detroit replacing numerous, expensive workers with relatively infragile, inexpensive machines on the factory floor. Other examples include the infamous automated phone operator to replace human phone operators, and eBay and Amazon replacing the flea market (to an extent).

It's happening now, with food and retail service companies replacing checkout clerks with self-checkout machines. Even emergency dispatch centers can run with fewer people thanks to the help of computer aided dispatching. The picture seems bleak for the near future, with Google's fleet of self-driving cars.[3] In fact, where most industries have made significant recovery since the 2008 recession, the transportation industry's unemployment rate is still hovering above 9%.[4] Drivers make mistakes, they get tired, they have to take breaks for food and rest, and they require payment, insurance, and workman's comp if they're injured. A fleet of self-driving trucks, busses, and taxis, however, would require neither recompense nor rest, save for maintenance. Ask yourself, with today's technology, is your job really irreplaceable? Is there really a good reason that a machine can't do your work? One must wonder, if a computer can drive a car, how long before we let one make a life or death decision in war-time, and if it would make the right call.

Don't worry, through. Not yet, anyway. Technology's been replacing people in the workforce since the late 1800's, with the invention of the cotton gin, followed by the farm tractor, steam engines and the electric motor. There's simply no way people can compete against machines in brute force labor and computations. Each time machines take over a sector, though, it frees up both money that was being spent on the labor force, and the labor force to move on to more meaningful, productive work. Would life in the developed world be even half as convenient and easy as it is today if a little under half of America still worked on farms[2] just to keep the country fed? I doubt it severely. The growth is a little painful at first, but it generally seems to pay out to society as a whole in the long run.


So, yeah, that's it. Sorry, folks, I ran kind of short on time, here. I'll likely re-visit the subject in the future. Please feel free to share this blog, share what you've learned, and do your own research. You are welcome to share any questions, comments, or concerns both on the blog, and on my facebook page.

[4]http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car

[2]http://www.census.gov/1940census/then_and_now/index.html

[1]http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/