Re:More Robots, Fewer Jobs: capital vs. labor in production
by neuromantik8086 on Monday May 08, 2017 @01:10PM
(#14293513)
My blue-collar cousin works for one of the companies that is responsible for at least some of the automation in the states that the article highlights. When asked about the workers at these factories at a family gathering, his response was to advocate that these workers pursue more education, which I think echoes your point- the more knowledge you have that you can recombine in new and creative ways, the less likely you are to suffer in the long-term.
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Re:More Robots, Fewer Jobs: capital vs. labor in production
by PeterisP on Monday May 08, 2017 @04:27PM
(#14295289)
If 10 menial jobs are replaced by 3 high-skilled jobs, more knowledge will help you be among the minority who take those new jobs.
However, giving extra education to all 10 of those people won't help all of them; the whole point why those 10 jobs were eliminated was to achieve the same result with less people.
Re:More Robots, Fewer Jobs: capital vs. labor in production
by jawns on Monday May 08, 2017 @03:13PM
(#14294638)
You bring up a good point, that education and retraining is often a part of the process.
And the more I think about it, there are probably a good number of workers affected by or at risk of being replaced by automation, and they are not necessarily resistant to change -- but they might not have the resources to pursue the retraining and education that would help them pick up the skills necessary to adapt.