Automation in various fields and throughout whole industries was supposed to be the bane of existence for working people, but how many telephone switchboard operators are still around? First the Area Code dialing system eliminated a lot of Long Distance operators, then the cell phones eliminated a lot of line maintenance people for the phone companies.
What about keypunch operators that typed up the IBM card system? Technology eliminated that job, but the jobs the former keypunch operators held translated into computer data entry, a much more lucrative job, and one which grew at exponential rates.
Until it didn’t any more.
Eliminating drivers merely frees up many more maintenance personnel, but the job is even now much different than the “grease monkey” that used to change engine oil and replace shock absorbers. Armed with a vast array of diagnostic tools, the new technicians are not only much more productive, they are also, in the end, a cost-cutting strategy, heading off and preventing problems before they develop.
The Luddites will never stop job evolution.
I agree with you completely. But the gov’t, labor unions and illegal cheap labor has messed up the free market. The free market would decide whether it was more beneficial to replace a human and whether it opens up other occupations for the unemployed.
The people who lose their jobs due to automation are the low skilled. Unless they can acquire new skills they will fall behind and be part of a permanent underclass. We have the lowest labor participation rates in 38 years.
Government data collected in December 2014 show 18 million immigrants (legal and illegal) living in the United States who arrived in January 2000 or later. But only 9.3 million jobs were added over this time period. In addition, the native-born population 16 and older grew by 25.2 million. Because job growth has not come close to matching immigration and population growth, the share of Americans in the labor force has declined dramatically — a clear indication there is no labor shortage.
We have a surplus of labor and automation will reduce the number of jobs for our least skilled and educated. 40% of non-immigrant headed households have a HS diploma or less. 44% of legal immigrant headed households have a HS degree or less and 78% of the illegal headed households have a high school diploma or less.
