The Growing Underclass: Jobs Gone Forever

Re:The Growing Underclass: Jobs Gone Forever by msluyter on Friday January 29, 2010 @11:11AM (#1086743)

Or maybe the culprit is a corollary of Moore’s Law, the idea of exponential advances in technology over time. That might suggest that innovation and automation displace more and more workers by the time each recession rolls around.

This is also Marshall Brain's thesis in Robotic Nation:

http://www.marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm

In the broadest terms, automation and computerization increase productivity, which means fewer people are needed to do the same amount of work. Conventional wisdom holds that new jobs will be created for displaced workers, but it's as yet unclear what those new jobs might be.

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Re:The Growing Underclass: Jobs Gone Forever by rleisti on Friday January 29, 2010 @11:44AM (#1086838)

In a more general sense, increased productivity means more value is created per unit cost. This could mean the same value with less jobs; it could also mean the same amount of jobs with more value.

A growing pool of displaced labour is also a growing un-tapped resource (or a growing revolution, depending on how well society manages it).

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Re:The Growing Underclass: Jobs Gone Forever by krakensden on Friday January 29, 2010 @01:38PM (#1087153)

Are workers being replaced by robots, or by workers in other countries who are willing/able to work for less money?

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Re:The Growing Underclass: Jobs Gone Forever by jodrellblank on Friday January 29, 2010 @12:26PM (#1086948)

http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-faq.htm

His suggestion is to ramp up to giving everyone $25,000 per year living costs from the government, with the understanding that people will not just "do nothing" anymore than people "do nothing" with their free time now, but still keep a capitalist system so people who want to earn more can earn more, and ... more details in the FAQ linked above.

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