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Re: The robots are coming! - Now, watch employment boom!
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Rudy Canoza
Jan 17, 2014, 12:13:06 PM1/17/14
to
On 1/17/2014 8:15 AM, Bugster, economics-illiterate and proud of it, lied:
> Governments warned: Robots may take half our jobs in 20 years, so prepare
> for revolution
Ha ha ha ha ha! You fuckwit - you don't even realize how much
automation has already taken place. This isn't about "robots", you
stupid knuckle-dragging fuckwit; it's about automation.
Commercial airlines used to have "flight engineers" in addition to a
pilot and co-pilot. That job has completely disappeared. In addition,
larger planes mean fewer flights between the same places, so entire
flight crews have disappeared.
Rubbish trucks used to have a driver and two collectors who rode on the
outside of the truck, jumped off and emptied the trash bins into the
hopper. Now there is only the driver, and a mechanical claw reaches out
and picks up the receptacle and empties it into the truck bin.
Business firms used to employ millions of telephone receptionists who
answered and redirected phone calls. Now automated phone menu systems
do that.
Banks used to employ many millions of tellers. Now ATMs handle a lot of
that, and even those are disappearing as more customers use on-line and
mobile banking.
In 1870, close to 80% of the U.S. workforce was employed in agriculture.
Today, it is under 2%.
Many thousands of people used to work as travel agents. Today, most
people book travel using on-line services like Expedia and Orbitz. This
isn't just travel; car rental companies employ far fewer booking agents
because people can book rental cars through the same sites.
There are far fewer bookstore employees than there used to be, thanks to
Amazon and similar services.
Every time there is a merger of two or more companies to form a bigger
company, jobs are lost. Economies of scale mean many administrative
positions are redundant: if two firms that merge each have one human
resources administrator prior to the merger, it is highly likely that
only one will be needed after the merger.
The list of past job "loss" due to automation and economies of scale is
endless.
*MORE* jobs have been eliminated through automation and economies of
scale in the past than will be eliminated by "robots" in the next two
decades...and yet, the average employment rate has not fluctuated much
over time.
Once again, we see Bugster and the rest of the economics-illiterate left
committing the "lump of labor" fallacy, i.e., there is only so much work
to be done, and automation permanently puts people out of work. The
belief is a fallacy. There is *always* more work to be done than there
are workers available to do it - always and without exception.
> Governments warned: Robots may take half our jobs in 20 years, so prepare
> for revolution
Ha ha ha ha ha! You fuckwit - you don't even realize how much
automation has already taken place. This isn't about "robots", you
stupid knuckle-dragging fuckwit; it's about automation.
Commercial airlines used to have "flight engineers" in addition to a
pilot and co-pilot. That job has completely disappeared. In addition,
larger planes mean fewer flights between the same places, so entire
flight crews have disappeared.
Rubbish trucks used to have a driver and two collectors who rode on the
outside of the truck, jumped off and emptied the trash bins into the
hopper. Now there is only the driver, and a mechanical claw reaches out
and picks up the receptacle and empties it into the truck bin.
Business firms used to employ millions of telephone receptionists who
answered and redirected phone calls. Now automated phone menu systems
do that.
Banks used to employ many millions of tellers. Now ATMs handle a lot of
that, and even those are disappearing as more customers use on-line and
mobile banking.
In 1870, close to 80% of the U.S. workforce was employed in agriculture.
Today, it is under 2%.
Many thousands of people used to work as travel agents. Today, most
people book travel using on-line services like Expedia and Orbitz. This
isn't just travel; car rental companies employ far fewer booking agents
because people can book rental cars through the same sites.
There are far fewer bookstore employees than there used to be, thanks to
Amazon and similar services.
Every time there is a merger of two or more companies to form a bigger
company, jobs are lost. Economies of scale mean many administrative
positions are redundant: if two firms that merge each have one human
resources administrator prior to the merger, it is highly likely that
only one will be needed after the merger.
The list of past job "loss" due to automation and economies of scale is
endless.
*MORE* jobs have been eliminated through automation and economies of
scale in the past than will be eliminated by "robots" in the next two
decades...and yet, the average employment rate has not fluctuated much
over time.
Once again, we see Bugster and the rest of the economics-illiterate left
committing the "lump of labor" fallacy, i.e., there is only so much work
to be done, and automation permanently puts people out of work. The
belief is a fallacy. There is *always* more work to be done than there
are workers available to do it - always and without exception.
Rudy Canoza
Jan 17, 2014, 4:31:04 PM1/17/14
to
On 1/17/2014 1:18 PM, Bugster, economics-illiterate and proud of it, lied:
> Harold Burton <hal.i....@notmail.com> wrote in
> news:hal.i.burton-F6F1...@74.sub-97-136-209.myvzw.com:
>
>> In article <lbbkv0$7tf$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
>>
>> Laugh . . . laugh . . . laugh
>>
> The Industrial Revolution took more than a century and people could return
> to the farm. Both governments and people had time to adapt. This
> revolution is already upon us - and we have nothing to fall back on.
*This* "revolution" - general automation, not "robots" - has been going
on for a century, and we have not had to worry about "falling back on"
anything.
New jobs always emerge - always. "Lump of labor" is a fallacy.
> Harold Burton <hal.i....@notmail.com> wrote in
> news:hal.i.burton-F6F1...@74.sub-97-136-209.myvzw.com:
>
>> In article <lbbkv0$7tf$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
>> Bugster, economics-illiterate and proud of it, lied:
>>
>>> Governments warned: Robots may take half our jobs in 20 years, so
>>> prepare for revolution
>>
>> It's deja vu all over again. Remember the Luddites?
>>
>>> Governments warned: Robots may take half our jobs in 20 years, so
>>> prepare for revolution
>>
>>
>> Laugh . . . laugh . . . laugh
>>
> The Industrial Revolution took more than a century and people could return
> to the farm. Both governments and people had time to adapt. This
> revolution is already upon us - and we have nothing to fall back on.
*This* "revolution" - general automation, not "robots" - has been going
on for a century, and we have not had to worry about "falling back on"
anything.
New jobs always emerge - always. "Lump of labor" is a fallacy.
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