Posted on 04/16/2018 6:57:24 AM PDT by C19fan
The Governor of the Bank of England has warned that the rise of robots in the workplace could cause a revival in Communism and 19th-century wage stagnation.
Mark Carney, 53, said automation of millions of jobs would result in more support of Communist ideas within a generation.
'Marx and Engels may again become relevant' if mechanisation forces down pay and raises inequality, he warned.
To alleviate the damage, Carney suggested workers should train for jobs that require higher emotional intelligence, for example in care and leisure.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This Luddite response seems to suggest the author hasn’t researched the topic.
I think it is a concern. If one robot takes three jobs and only 1 job arises from the net loss of the three jobs, what happens in the long term?
I have difficulty in believing that will need that many robot service men.
Think of the horse and buggy whip industries. Coal mining never took too much in the way of brains.
Marx foresaw some of this, but drew screwy dystopian conclusions.
Sure, if machines throw people out of work, and work can’t be found for the displaced, there will be social instability. But in the Marxian dystopia, the “workers” will fix this by jointly “owning” the machines, i.e., the means of production. Who will maintain these machines? Who will direct activity? You get back to an industrial/political royalty, which is why many of today’d dictators like some of the ideas of Communism.
Rally the malcontents, take over the wealth. Like Venezuela, ultimately.
Problem is that there are already plenty of millennials who thing socialism is a pretty good thing. Couple that with the robot/AI revolution replacing jobs (and not just mundane, low level jobs either), and it will be hard to convince them otherwise.
Not unrelated, but this is yet another reason I think we should go back to the days when the only people who could vote was the landowners.
Bernie Sanders did a little too well last time around.
Meanwhile we’re supposed to be importing young workers because we aren’t creating enough of our own?
Can’t have it both ways. “Robots” are just a continuation of the technology and automation that has led to increased living standards for hundreds of years. They may sound scary, but they are no different than how we replaced switchboard operators, secretaries, bank tellers, etc.
This hysteria is just being used as an excuse to push Marxism.
The whole idea only works with unlimited resources which humans do not have access nor the ability to make literally anything on demand for free ... yet
I hadn't heard the term until about a month ago when I attended a day long professional continuing educational seminar.
One of the hour long presentations was on emotional intelligence which started with a test to rate ourselves. I scored very high when the emotional intelligence involved young children and very low when it involved mid teens to adults.
The instructor wasn't really happy when I described it as "the ability to dwell in nambly pambly land." But that seemed what it was like to me.
While, I can be very sympathetic/emphatic to young children (maybe because I am a grandfather), by the time you grow up, I tend to think society would be better off teaching courses in how not to get your feelings hurt so easily rather than making the rest of society walk on eggshells around you. Call it "insensitivity training" if you like.
I suppose that makes me some sort of an anachronism or a throwback. Has anyone else run into this?
Yeah, I think real emotional intelligence is the ability to train your emotions so you don't fall apart when somebody doesn't give you what you want either by retreating to a safe space to cry or, worse, wanting to shoot up a school or other soft target.
I think it will lead to Wall-E-ism.
I agree with you about importing workers. However, I do think it’s different about machines that, one process at a time, being able to do all the job, every step of the way.
Luddite.
It could also lead to massive increases in production AND lives of leisure for everyone.
To paraphrase Sterling Archer: “Will [they] not rest until we’ve all been enslaved by Skynet?”
Very stupid idea. He must be wishing for communism, and tried hard to find something that would justify it.
What you are observing is the wisdom of experience (from age) viewing the lack of it from the youth.
I keep telling my kids (and anyone else I can get to listen) that you really son’t understand ‘experience’ until you get some.
Just like you can never understand what it’s like to have children, until you have some.
Some things you can’t learn except through experience, and the wisest people learn quickly how to get experience through interactions with people who have experience.
I really do think this time it is different. No job is safe - from the truck driver, to the manager to the artist to the CEO to the brain surgeon. NO job is safe, and virtually ALL of them may go away.
I’m not saying what the answer to this will be, but it will be disruptive politically, culturally and socially.
A good example here is McDonalds. Once they reach a level of automation....half of the burger-flipper crowd will be dismissed. You will order via a board at the entry...charge it via a sensor, and some kid will hand you a bag 90 seconds later. Some automation repair folks will be on the staff but most of these McDonalds low-level positions will disappear over the next twenty years.
Same will happen with all of the food operations. Grocery clerk jobs will go the same way. This guy is correct in that low-level jobs will quietly start to disappear in twenty-odd years.
The onset will be startlingly rapid and pervasive as well. The upheaval will dwarf past dislocations such as the Industrial Revolution which gave rise to not just the term “Luddite” but the word “sabotage.” People who think it’ll be just fine and toss out some laissez-faire boilerplate no doubt think their careers, their positions in society and their bank accounts are not threatened. I think they’re in for an unpleasant surprise.
Marx and Engels may again become relevant' if mechanisation forces down pay and raises inequality, he warned.
Hollowing out' was already being seen in the job market, he warned, with computers able to complete both unskilled - and skilled - work.
Just sayin...
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.