Posted on 04/05/2015 5:14:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Robopocalypse for workers may be inevitable. In this vision of the future, super-smart machines will best humans in pretty much every task. A few of us will own the machines, a few will work a bit — perhaps providing "Made by Man" artisanal goods — while the rest will live off a government-provided income. Silicon-based superintelligence and robots will dramatically alter labor markets — to name but one example, the most common job in most U.S. states probably will no longer be truck driver.
But what about right now? If you're unemployed or working part-time instead of full-time, or haven't seen a raise in years, should you blame technology?
Yes, says venture capitalist and former Intel executive Bill Davidow. In a provocative piece for Harvard Business Review, "The Internet Has Been a Colossal Economic Disappointment," Davidow makes a strong claim: "For all its economic virtues, the internet has been long on job displacement and short on job creation. As a result, it is playing a central role in wage stagnation and the decline of the middle class."
Just look at how Amazon is disrupting brick-and-mortar retailing. And even though tech firms such as Google and Facebook generate huge revenues, they employ comparatively few people versus industrial giants of the past, such as IBM or General Motors. In the 1970s, General Motors employed more than 600,000 people, 10 times more Google and Facebook combined.
To accept Davidow's broad conclusion, though, one also has to believe workers across many sectors would be a lot better off today if the internet had not been invented. That's an unlikely counterfactual. Just look at how the labor market has been doing. The U.S. economy has generated 3.3 million jobs over the past year, the best 12-month performance since 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
Just jump ship to the Dems now, you are practically Dick Gephardt anyway.
Baloney.
I support American jobs, right here.
I got nothing to apologize for. Absolutely nothing.
I am not pro-union. I however am (very) much pro-American, and our trade situation has become anything but that.
Your position wanting China to grow ever stronger, is more a democrat position.
For real.
Our trade situation is currently out of control.
Oh. A brave flatlander..hide behind your keyboard much?
It’s not about YOU and your stinking wallet.
I don’t care about your wallet. The Universe does not revolve around your wallet.
I do care about the well being of my fellow Americans, White, Asia, Latin and African Americans.
This country needs JOBS, many more well paying JOBS.
Without more TAXPAYERS the country is going to implode.
Thank you for the kind words.
Also thank you for constantly bringing this subject up.
Many people on this board don’t want to hear it, but they need to.
Is that the new rule? Assign a fictitious argument to others, but claim none of your own?
Stand for what you are supporting.
You are standing for what we currently have, which is completely sold out to China.
Fess up.
I will ask you again. How much more do you expect your fellow citizens to pay in order to fund the “well being of [our] fellow Americans?” Don’t be a pussy about it.
Last year America bought 466 billion dollars worth of goods from China.
Last year China bought 124 billion dollars worth of goods from America.
It’s even worse, thus far this year.
How much did that add to our national debt? LOL
It is going up all the time.
Over 18 trillion dollars. Yet we buy, and buy, and buy ever more from China and elsewhere.
While ever more Americans, are out of work. Bring back jobs to America.
I’ve been reading recently that Mexico is now able to undercut China on auto parts production. That’s exactly the opposite of 15 years ago.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out going forward.
And I will continue to point it out, thread-by-thread if necessary.
No I am genuinely concerned that America (as in both parties) are in the middle of selling out America to the Peoples Republic of China.
That is what I am concerned about.
It is not just you, who are on the wrong side. Very few people yet get that we’re selling out everything which made America the great country it has been.
Everything.
GOP get with the program. America needs to bring back jobs.
The internet is not killing jobs.
Taxes and regulations are killing jobs.
It has has been beneficial. I think the internet is giving people another way to conduct business. Things are more available and accessible to people.
Of course, the old ways have to change or they will go the way of the buggy whip.
Your argument is a false premise, and thus a waste of time.
Do Free Trade policies create more Taxpayers who can help fund the country? No. It creates more Wall Mart workers who can’t even support themselves without aid.
We have 90+ million people out of the workforce. What is your goal 150 million.
Right. If a farmer/rancher can get more in China ….free trade and all……
That’s BS. If you were “genuinely concerned,” then you would school yourself regarding basic economic language.
Your opinion is stated with so much force that it must be true. What else can there be?
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