Re:Will automation put an end to the American trucker?
by simonh on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @05:41PM
(#15445553)
Typically the gains would be shared through lower prices to customers and higher profits. Lower costs might also increase demand for services and goods, growing the industry and increasing employment elsewhere in companies, though that latter is likely to be a relatively small effect.
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Re:Will automation put an end to the American trucker?
by winstonewert on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @06:18PM
(#15445794)
Its not about lower costs or growing the industry.
If we save $1 billion dollars in automating one industry, we are just going to spend that $1 billion dollars elsewhere, growing some other industry.
Re:Will automation put an end to the American trucker?
by simonh on Thursday October 12, 2017 @10:34AM
(#15458230)
That's right, it frees up $1bn for other uses. This is why automation, ever since the industrial revolution, hasn't lead to persistent mass unemployment. The capital freed up by more efficient industry was used to create new industries and jobs that didn't even exist before. There have been some painful adjustments, but the more flexible an economy is the more rapidly it adjusts. Historically this has been a US strength.