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.
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.
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.
Of course there was the loss of unskilled production jobs over the past 50 years but now there is even more need for the skilled maintenance personnel to work on the equipment. Hopefully more schools will start focusing on industrial shop classes to prepare kids to move on to legitimate trade schools instead of colleges.........
I say "legitimate" because Detroit has a Focus Hope trade school that isn't worth crap. All they cared about was enrollment numbers due to federal funding and didn't give a rat's butt whether the inner city students showed up or not........most of the time they didn't
Here is the problem with the “robots taking our jobs” theory... let’s say robots are wildly successful and take all the jobs in an area, including making hamburgers... who will then be left who can afford a hamburger? No one... so the price of hamburgers will start to fall..., but as more people get displaced, they will also stop buying hamburgers... so while on the surface, robots seem great, over time, they will erode the purchasing power of the individuals in the economy, thus erasing their value.
In short, robots will have short term value to early adopters, but will only drive down the price of goods and services produced as companies all adopt robots or get driven out of business. Companies will have to produce more product, for less profit, to sell to fewer people who can afford the offer.
I would question the 3:1 tradeoff number. Think of what it takes to manufacture a robot in terms of hardware and software. Also, unlike a human, robots are serviced and maintained by people and have a work life that is shorter than a human. So far, the Industrial Revolution has continued to grow economies around the globe, and a good part of that growth has been in the last two decades. Indeed, how did the Chinese take away the manufacturing jobs? They did it by substituting capital for labor. Why can’t we do the same thing? In many cases, the unions priced themselves out of the labor market.
Are we actually running out of things that need to be done? Are we running out of work?
I don’t think so. Robots and related automation will be a bit of a disruption but we will adjust to that as we go along. Personally I’m looking forward to it.
But that wouldn't be the case. Someone is needed to program the robot, as it needs to be instructed what its function is, or perhaps even multiple functions. One needs to do maintenance on it, while yet another needs to repair it. Other jobs that will be required would be in the manufacturing of the robot. People to supply the materials to build it. Just the examples I can imagine right off the top of my head.
One major difference is that it will require skilled workers, not just healthy bodied people lacking any real skills.
Everyone will own a robot, send it to work, and collect the robot’s salary - while doing nothing but providing the robot a place to ‘plug in’ to recharge, and to pay for periodic servicing. You’ll also get to deduct the robot as a ‘dependent’ from your income tax, on the income the robot earned, but you confiscated - or something.