Posted on 09/06/2013 11:41:34 AM PDT by usalady
Is the debate about giving citizenships to millions of illegal immigrants becoming irrelevant as technology begins to replace the need for today’s human labor required in planting and picking field crops?
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
This is specific automation. But general automation is coming and when it does there will be massive labor dislocations and massive unemployment.
Imagine general robots with sufficient skill to replace every grocery and retail shelf stocker. And robots that could run checkout registers for grocery, retail and restaurants. That alone would be huge numbers.
The coming self driving cars will also cause massive labor dislocations. Body shop workers, traffic cops, lawyers, even demand for medical services will drop as driving becomes automated and safer.
This is specific automation. But general automation is coming and when it does there will be massive labor dislocations and massive unemployment.
Imagine general robots with sufficient skill to replace every grocery and retail shelf stocker. And robots that could run checkout registers for grocery, retail and restaurants. That alone would be huge numbers.
The coming self driving cars will also cause massive labor dislocations. Body shop workers, traffic cops, lawyers, even demand for medical services will drop as driving becomes automated and safer.
WALL-E
Still a bad idea: this time, the illegals will NOT be working and mooch more off the system.
The problem is we are entering a very dark period and possibly the end of the human era.
The industrial revolution over time made the human body largely obsolete and uncompetitive in the economy.
People adapted by going into the so-called "knowlege economy."
We are now at the beginning of the era where the human mind becomes uncompetitive in the economy.
When machines can think better than any human, we will have nothing to contribute and be unable to compete with those who own the machines.
We will split into Eloi and Morlocks.
The operation went forward anyway. It was highly sucessful and, for the most part, we do not use stoop labor to commercially harvest tomatoes anymore.
The reason: a mechanical harvesting machine was on the market within a year. The inventor had the idea some years before but wouldn't build it because it couldn't compete with cheap labor.
Maybe we can use 3D printers to print a field of lettuce.
Better, maybe we can use 3D printers to print baskets of lettuce, thereby eliminating the both planting and picking.
We are now at the beginning of the era where the human mind becomes uncompetitive in the economy.
It's already happening.
We went from being paid for what our hands make to what our minds know.
But now specialized knowledge is increasingly accessible via the internet.
The last remaining career refuge might be for those who can creatively process all that "free" information to create new information.
But that will represent only a handful of people.
The rest of us will be living in government paid for 3d printed boxes eating government paid for 3d printed food.
Money is just a proxy for human labor. When human labor is worthless money will be worthless.
The machines will extract the resources, manufacture the goods, grow the food and deliver it to its owners. All without the need for money of any kind.
The surpluss population will be exterminated. If we are lucky they will sterilize us and at least allow us to live out our natural lives.
Remember first of the Year Walmart’s, Buy American Campaign. Most of their items are made overseas ..Buy American must mean you bought in it America.
When Sam was alive Wal-mart tried hard to work with American producers to have price competitive products.
But Buy American campaigns and a few individuals willing to sacrifice to Buy American are not the answer. We need government to restore the import tariffs. Then all Americans will be playing by the same rules and will all be acting together.
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