Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Does information technology destroy or create jobs? Debate heats up
Smart Planet ^ | October 31, 2011 | Joe McKendrick

Posted on 11/14/2011 5:04:36 PM PST by gitmo

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-75 last
To: ClearCase_guy

>> If we were all subsistence level farmers, there would be
>> almost no unemployment.

But such existence is hard, brutal and a constant struggle. How many people you know actually live completely off the grid using 18th-19th century amenities?


61 posted on 11/15/2011 4:29:40 AM PST by JadeEmperor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: gitmo

One cannot look at employment and technology in isolation. There is still plenty, if not much more, manufacturing in the world today (somebody has to make the computers, industrial robots, and smart phones). But two factors have shifted this jobs offshore: the difference in labor costs and the difference in regulatory costs. One of those is hard to compete with, the other we simply ceded to the third world.

Another issue is how we catorgorize things. The person who assembles the industrial robot is considered in a manufacturing job, but the person who wrote the software controlling the robot is not. The same applies to the Foxconn Chinese slave laborers who assemble the iPhone and the workers in California who write iOS.

Finally, for those jobs that cannot be outsourced (agriculture), we have allowed these jobs to effectively be outsourced via illegal immigration.

We can talk all we want about agricultural jobs being low-paying, but to import an underclass to do this work when we have an in-place, unemployed underclass in the same geography suggests some unemployment is a choice.


62 posted on 11/15/2011 5:04:52 AM PST by magellan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gitmo
Does information technology destroy or create jobs?

Information technology has created tens of millions of jobs - in China, India, and other Third World pits. Not so many in the US, though. That not the fault of new technology. That's the direct result of government and corporate policy.

63 posted on 11/15/2011 5:33:32 AM PST by Roninf5-1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ptsal

Thanks for sharing. I was not speaking for the Entire World, in case I neglected to make myself clear.


64 posted on 11/15/2011 6:35:15 AM PST by bboop (Without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers? St. Augustine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: gitmo
This is no coincidence, Brynjolfsson and McAfee say. For example, increasing automation has dramatically reduced the need for customer service workers across many industries, such as airline reservations or directory assistance, the authors point out

Damn kiosks! Is there any reason for hope that at least all the people put out of work are bitter clingers?? < / The Won mode >

65 posted on 11/15/2011 8:43:34 AM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Still Thinking

LOL.
My wife asked me why I always go to the self checkout lines in the grocery store. I had never thought about it, but I answered, “So I don’t have to talk to people.”


66 posted on 11/15/2011 8:51:38 AM PST by gitmo (Hatred of those who think differently is the left's unifying principle.-Ralph Peters NY Post)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: Tammy8
Of course I know that, but to blame unemployment on technology with the illegal elephant in the country is pretty out there.

The only way illegals will be dealt with is if we the people get angry enough to force our politicians to do something about it. If people knew the whole truth about illegal immigration and the other border issues and how it impacts every single person in this country it would happen soon. Most don’t care though and will watch dancing with the stars while whining about things they could change if they would get their arses off the couch.


I wonder if knowing that illegals cost US taxpayers ~ $1/4 - $1/3 Trillion per year would help.
67 posted on 11/15/2011 10:46:36 AM PST by algernonpj (He who pays the piper . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: gitmo

I do it because I’m a better checker than they are. Disclaimer : when. I get done. I can leave. They just get another customer.


68 posted on 11/15/2011 12:12:19 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: bboop

...low blood sugar and too much filtered news makes my commentary too vitriolic.... At least that’s what my spouse says.


69 posted on 11/15/2011 1:17:06 PM PST by ptsal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...
Image and video hosting by TinyPic "ATMs have destroyed the banking industry, which is too bad, because thousands of my stooges have spent the past month and a half attacking banks, and of course, our common enemy, the Jew."

70 posted on 11/15/2011 8:05:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Still Thinking
Disclaimer : when. I get done. I can leave.

Sigh. This is the crap that happens when you post from a mobile. D'oh!

71 posted on 11/15/2011 8:30:58 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: gitmo

bttt


72 posted on 11/16/2011 8:20:54 PM PST by Balata (It's 'WE THE PEOPLE' Obama, not 'WE THE SHEEPLE'!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: adorno
The future belongs to humans, along with their “slave” machines, where, each human will be “partnered” with a robot, endowed with the best and most current “AI” of the times.

Asimov explored this in his "Foundation" and "Robot" novels. Some of the implications aren't pretty.

73 posted on 11/20/2011 3:26:31 PM PST by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: zeugma

Yeah, but those were science fiction novels, and our future with machines/robots/computers, is not about the worst of consequences.


74 posted on 11/20/2011 7:45:40 PM PST by adorno (<)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: All

Less Than $1k To Go
Even George Would Be Shocked
To Find Some FReepers
Haven't Donated To FR This Quarter!
Every Dollar Helps!!

Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!


75 posted on 11/20/2011 7:46:44 PM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-75 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson