[ClaytonP]

Automation like this is a yet another reason why we should be restoring the import tariffs. We need Americans making as many of the products used by Americans as we can to soak up the excess labor. And if the products are made here, when the jobs are automated, it will be Americans owning the robots. 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.

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.

[Vince Ferrer]

We will split into Eloi and Morlocks.

[Vince Ferrer]

I agree that this is a very dangerous time for massive dislocations in employment. Why congress is not considering this when debating immigration is unconscionable.

[Age of Reason]

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.

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.

[mdmathis6]

Well those that own the machines will run into the problem of not being able to make money off of the people who are unemployed and can't buy the things made by the machines. The machines will break down because those that owned the machines can't get them fixed and serviced because there are no trained technicians to fix the machines because the educational systems are all bankrupt! I think a grand balance is going to have to be struck between manual labor and mechanization!