Posted on 09/14/2014 4:55:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
Remember the Terminator movies and the evil electronic overlords of Skynet – the computer system that became self-aware and launched the war against humans? We aren’t there…yet. But we are fast approaching the point where people simply aren’t necessary to conduct a significant amount of business and life.
There won’t be a single day – a “Skynet Day” – we will point to when the low- and no-skilled workers became the Betamax of the workforce. It will happen gradually. But it will happen. And we’ll spend decades arguing over why.
It didn’t start with the formation of unions. They were an important and necessary movement at one time. Working conditions were awful, safety was an afterthought, and they forced employers to address both.
But once they won they didn’t accept victory; they redefined it.
Unions went from demanding humane treatment and a safe working environment to demanding an ever-growing slice of the economic pie. They wanted to consume more without producing more, and they wanted those rewards without any of the risks associated with it. When profits were up, they wanted a taste; when profits were down, or gone, they still wanted more.
Unions haven’t adapted their tactics or demands with the times. They have the same sense of entitlement to an ever-growing piece of someone else’s risk with none of the consequences of failure. Unions extracted so much it eventually became more profitable for companies to manufacture products overseas and ship them back here than to simply make them here.
Outsourcing meant no more pensions, automatic raises or paying through the nose to fire ineffective or incompetent employees, and the savings more than covered the cost of creating a logistical network to build and ship products thousands of miles. Now that people have the opportunity to flee unions, they are doing so in droves. But unions were repelling jobs before that.
But unions aren’t the only culprits when it comes to leading us down a path with robotic masters at its end; government played a major role too.
When President Franklin Roosevelt imposed wage controls during World War II, companies had to find new ways to compete for desired employees. The benefits package was born, and with it came a marriage between health insurance and employers. The cost of employing humans was set on a constantly increasing trajectory.
To solidify that union, the government incentivized it in the tax code – providing special tax treatment of insurance provided by an employer that someone who purchased their own insurance could not get. The marriage was consummated, and low-skilled workers were screwed.
Add to this market uncertainties from government mandates such as the minimum wage, the need to pay managers more than those they supervise and the costs of hiring and providing mandate-laden benefits, and it’s easy to see why conducting transactions with as few human beings as possible became an imperative.
These lessons, admittedly simplified for the sake of brevity, are lost on the very people with the most to lose as we inch toward an automated and robotic workplace.
That politicians and activist groups hoping to motivate uninformed voters would rally around an increased minimum wage is to be expected – they feed on ignorance, economic or otherwise. But their economically illiterate followers are sealing their own fate, advocating for their own replacement and a life of dependency.
The “Fight for $15,” the progressive union-backed push to raise the starting wage of fast-food employees to $15 per hour under the guise of economic independence and quality of life, will be the death of fast-food jobs. These jobs should be for kids’ first foray into the workforce, but with manufacturing jobs already chased out of the country, unskilled workers have gravitated to burger-flipping and raised the average age of burger jockeys.
The economic pressures that led to robotics replacing manufacturers of physical goods are being applied to food preparation in the name of compassion. These “strikers” are painted as victims by the media and heroes for standing up for themselves.
In reality, they are people who’ve made bad choices in their lives and now, as adults, work dead-end jobs that were designed for children. The person most responsible for the misery in their lives is not sitting in a boardroom anywhere; it’s the upside-down image looking back at them from their spoons.
There’s no money and no power in conveying that truth, so it isn’t told. But it’s a truth that bears repeating.
None of the “strikers” are saying they’re going to “earn” anything. They’re saying they “deserve” more. They don’t. If you can be replaced by a kiosk or the honor system, you are not in position to ask for a huge raise.
The kiosks are coming, and if robots can assemble a car, they sure as hell can assemble a hamburger or a pizza.
These people demanding more will end up with nothing but a government life preserver and a chip on their shoulder bigger than the lie-filled one currently crushing them.
Robots may or may not achieve self-awareness and wipe out humanity at some point in the future but not before the worst parts of humanity’s nature wipes away many of the much-needed jobs that do exist. It won’t be “corporate greed” that destroys lives; it will be human jealously and the entitlement mentality bred by economic ignorance and envy.
Who needs Skynet when you’ve got progressive politicians, activists and unions doing to jobs, economic growth and hope what no Terminator was able to do?
I think this is very dangerous. There seems to be some trade off that when intelligence reaches a certain level like it does with humans, insanity goes along with it. The majority of people in this world are completely out of their minds, it’s how Obama was elected twice, why the world doesn’t come down hard on radical Islam, why people push communism even though they know the history of it. So when computers reach that level of intelligence are they going to be insane as well? I mean just imagine an all powerful computer with the logic of Nancy Pelosi. Will it declare itself “The most powerful woman in the woooorld” and demand it’s own Air Force 1? Will it think Obama is the almighty and that white people must accept black beatdowns or be called racist if they defend themselves?
It’s probably already in the works and knowing these sick bast$&#s they will probably name it that just to make sure it’s intent is clear...
Your account has been terminated
Homeland security was set up and sitting in the wings waiting for 9/11. How quickly if was implemented. Homeland security would have had a hard run over many many years if a catastrophic event did not happen. Leaves room for thought
> I think this is very dangerous. There seems to be some trade off that when intelligence reaches a certain level like it does with humans, insanity goes along with it. The majority of people in this world are completely out of their minds, it’s how Obama was elected twice, why the world doesn’t come down hard on radical Islam, why people push communism even though they know the history of it. So when computers reach that level of intelligence are they going to be insane as well? I mean just imagine an all powerful computer with the logic of Nancy Pelosi.
Well it was the Erudites (intellectuals) in Divergence that tried to wipe out the other factions using a powerful neurotransmitter type drug to take control of the Dauntless (soldiers / LEOs) and kill the others. Their is a lot of truth in that movie in the form of metaphors. One is intellectuals always seem to cause trouble in societies because their downfall is pride and arrogance and they think their knowledge makes them superior to others. The problems start when they start dictating how others are to think and live according to their rules. History has proven it time and time again. The problem is technology has grown so that now it is a dangerous and favored tool of theirs.
The writer completely misses the point. By focusing on the microevent backed by irrelevant science fictional perspective, the real reason for the push for $15 is missed.
All the people demonstrating and getting their rocks off shouting at the man are pawns. Actually if there were a lower rank than pawn they would be there.
The demonstrations are the work of the Democrat machine that is desperately attempting to develop solid wage inflation in a time of economic malaise and unemployment. The wage inflation will not occur naturally when there is no competition for competent workers. The wage inflation must be forced, created from thin air.
There are two really big problems that can only be solved by inflation. The first is paying off the debt. The only way to reduce the debt is to inflate it away. The second and newer problem is Obamacare. The only way to keep the law and make it acceptable is to have wages rise to a level where the increased cost for insurance is masked or a short term gain of increased wages over costs is achieved.
The hoopla over increased wages is not about helping the downtrodden slaves working for less than a living wage, the hoopla is all about saving Barack Obama’s political butt
And, even if their wet dream comes true @ $15/hr, after factoring in increased taxes and 0bamacare, the useful idiots won’t take home any more money on payday. All the extra earnings will disappear into the government and their union’s pockets yet again! Won’t the useful eaters feel stupid after THAT fact hits them right between the eyes?
False. The instant that happens insurance premiums will rise to match. There is always a lag in this 'lagging indicator' but it (elasticity) cannot be circumvented. Google the word to see the rule as it applies to economics.
I recognized what you posted as correct. Please note that I interjected the thought of “the short term”
The short term good feeling occurs before the lag and the return to the conditions you note brought about by the change you note.
We are rapidly approaching the point where humans are the weakest link in the technosphere. Skynet is less than one generation away!
Not just the useless eaters. A friend is making just under $50k/year. He’s been continuously employed and also served several tours in the 1990s. He’s eligible for military disability, but it is barely enough for two people to live on. If he gets a raise in his civilian job, the higher tax bracket will eat into his take home until he will be making less than he does now.
Mr. Hunter misses the point.
This issue, which I agree is far and away the most important in our society, is being driven primarily by technology. The factors he mentions, such as unions and minimum wage laws, aggravate and speed up the changeover, but it would happen anyway, even in a libertarian paradise.
Anybody who has ever managed both people and equipment know that people, especially on the low end of the wage scale, are a pain in the ass.
Equipment is always there, doesn't get pregnant or a bad attitude, never gripes, etc.
We have been replacing people with equipment for centuries now. This has been in general a good thing. Those displaced move into other jobs machines can't yet do, on average better jobs.
The problem is that the "new jobs" of today for which there is still demand in general require intelligence and ability those being displaced just don't have.
The bus driver displaced by Google Bus isn't going to somehow develop the IQ or skill to create Android apps. Ain't gonna happen.
Which means we will have an increasingly larger population which is simply unneeded in an economic sense. There will be little or no economic demand for any service they are capable of providing.
Such an economy is likely to be highly productive. We'll produce enough "stuff" to provide a decent living for everybody, but it's difficult to see how a market economy can distribute it to those on the low end.
In particular, it worries me that I can discern no way of addressing such a situation without the State playing an even more dominant role in the economy than it presently does. I don't want such a role for government, but I don't see how to avoid it.
Skynet is already here!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_%28satellite%29
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-20781625
One hand giveth, and ten others taketh. Some raise...
Lifted shamelessly from the TownHall.com article comments:
“Won’t it be impossible for SkyNet to become self aware until after progressives become self aware?”
Clearly a winner.
Thank you Dan107.
Many recent headlines about allegedly genius surveillance machines say, in essence, “We’re watching you!” Drudge has been gathering them and splattering them to his page. It’s an attempt to enforce regulations for artificial scarcity and regulations against productive activities by sponsoring much “Boo!”
The movie, “Johnny Mnemonic,” is a more realistic analogy to the situation—especially the conclusion. But the vain don’t see it that way, and they see less in time. The short story, “The Marching Morons” (Cyril Kornbluth), is another analogy, except that leaders have assumed the more entertaining role and are even trying to arrange that “vacation” on “Venus,” so to speak.
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.