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Man Vs Machine: The Main Cause of Major Job Loss in America Isn't Human
The Naked Economist (via Yahoo Finance ) ^ | 10/27/2005 | Charles Wheelan, Ph.D.

Posted on 11/04/2005 1:15:48 PM PST by SirLinksalot

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1 posted on 11/04/2005 1:15:49 PM PST by SirLinksalot
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To: SirLinksalot

The nice thing about machines is that they don't form UNIONS that will extort your profits.


2 posted on 11/04/2005 1:17:14 PM PST by EagleUSA
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To: SirLinksalot

Is this sort of Luddite nonsense still being seriously entertained?


3 posted on 11/04/2005 1:17:47 PM PST by Borges
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To: SirLinksalot
Think voice mail, ATM machines

He wants us to think Automatic Teller Machines Machines?

4 posted on 11/04/2005 1:20:35 PM PST by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for Sgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: SirLinksalot
The headline assumes that there has been major job loss, yet the unemployment rate this year is 4.9% to 5.1%.

USA = FULL EMPLOYMENT.

5 posted on 11/04/2005 1:21:09 PM PST by ChadGore (VISUALIZE 62,041,268 Bush fans.)
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To: EagleUSA

They don't show up with an attitude either...


6 posted on 11/04/2005 1:21:19 PM PST by Mikey_1962
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To: SirLinksalot

Since July 2000, the U.S. economy has seen manufacturing employment fall from 17.3 million to 14.5 million as of November of this year – a loss of 2.8 million jobs. Many observers fear that these jobs have been "shipped overseas" and call for various policies to support the U.S. manufacturing base.

Despite news accounts of U.S. firms "outsourcing" jobs overseas, the data shows that the decline in US manufacturing employment generally has not been accompanied by faster employment growth abroad. Indeed, it appears that the manufacturing sector – both here and abroad – is undergoing the same phenomenon: rapid growth in productivity is delivering rapid growth in output with fewer people employed in manufacturing.

In the U.S., manufacturing employment peaked in June 1979. Since then, manufacturing jobs have declined by 21.8 percent. While considerable, this is actually smaller than the drop in manufacturing jobs than has occurred in most other countries since their peak levels. The table below shows the year in which manufacturing employment peaked in 16 other industrialized countries and the size of the employment declines since that peak.

The data shows that 12 of these countries, including France, Germany and Japan, have witnessed larger declines in their manufacturing industries. Even South Korea and Taiwan have seen manufacturing jobs decline from their peaks in the late-1980s.

Two OECD countries, Canada and Ireland (not shown below), have enjoyed small manufacturing job gains recently. Canadian manufacturing employment was just 5 percent higher in 2002 than at an earlier peak level. In Ireland, employment was only 4.5 percent higher in 2002 than it had been in 1980, an earlier peak that was not exceeded until 1997.

Considering the worldwide trend in productivity gains, it is unlikely that even the best-intentioned government program can halt the decline in manufacturing employment in the U.S. or any industrialized nation. Except for a few displaced workers, perhaps, all of us benefit from the higher wages and greater employment opportunities that such productivity gains make possible.



7 posted on 11/04/2005 1:22:58 PM PST by Mikey_1962
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To: Graybeard58

"He wants us to think Automatic Teller Machines Machines?"

Makes about as much sense as "HIV virus."


8 posted on 11/04/2005 1:24:48 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: SirLinksalot
The overriding lesson is simple: If your job can be done by a machine, then it soon will be. So try to be the guy who sells the machine.

LOL! The salesman makes profit once, the maintenance technician has a job for life. Let me know when the machines design, build, maintain and repair themselves.....

9 posted on 11/04/2005 1:25:01 PM PST by Decepticon (The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day (NRA)
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To: SirLinksalot
He has some good points. For example:

* Want to Protect Your Job? Develop Your Skills

* What do you think happens when JP Morgan Chase merges with Bank One? Bruce Springsteen doesn't sing about those people because they are adaptable enough to turn around and do something else. At the time this column was written, the unemployment rate for college-educated workers was 2.1 percent, compared to 4.9 percent for the nation as a whole and 7.6 percent for workers with less than a high school diploma.

* Dropping out of high school is financial suicide

* Even finishing high school and skipping college is looking increasingly foolish

10 posted on 11/04/2005 1:26:32 PM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: RegulatorCountry

Or P.I.N. Number.


11 posted on 11/04/2005 1:29:02 PM PST by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for Sgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: EagleUSA
The nice thing about machines is that they don't form UNIONS that will extort your profits.

And they don’t come to work drunk or otherwise impaired and damage themselves or something else, they don’t get sick, they don’t get pregnant and have to bug out for four months while you scramble to make other arrangements, they don’t go off on some phony-baloney stress leave, don’t sue for discrimination/harassment, don’t require medical insurance or cry and whine for a pension, more/fewer hours, or anything else.

They probably have plenty of other attractive traits too.

12 posted on 11/04/2005 1:30:40 PM PST by Who dat?
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To: Borges

His article states machines will take your job if the job is capabable of being automated, get used to it, and make sure that you have something of skill to offer.

I'm not sure what is Luddite-like about that.


13 posted on 11/04/2005 1:34:12 PM PST by Sirloin
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To: spetznaz
Even finishing high school and skipping college is looking increasingly foolish

Hmmmm. I would hire a military vet that is working through college over a pimply faced party punk that had mommy and daddy bye him an extra four years of mediocre education and brain washing, any day of the week.....to each his own.

14 posted on 11/04/2005 1:34:25 PM PST by Decepticon (The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day (NRA)
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To: Who dat?

They probably have plenty of other attractive traits too.
---
Good job! Yes, the workplace has turned into a very ugly environment for employers. And all supported by every sue-crazy lawyer and a liberal judicial system.

It has discouraged the starting of many a business.


15 posted on 11/04/2005 1:36:29 PM PST by EagleUSA
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To: Sirloin; Borges
I'm not sure what is Luddite-like about that.

The original Luddites never read the whole article either....

16 posted on 11/04/2005 1:37:13 PM PST by r9etb
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To: Borges
Is this sort of Luddite nonsense still being seriously entertained?

The article is not at all "Luddite nonsense", you should read it. The author isn't complaining or blaming ills on technology. The author is merely making the point that if you lack skills you will have a hard time getting a job that pays well because you are competing with machines. He isn't complaining about it. As a matter of fact, he sees it as a good thing for the country. Obviously, it is not a good thing for the unskilled laborers looking for a job. But that is not the fault of technology it is the fault of the unskilled laborers for not building a skill set.

17 posted on 11/04/2005 1:38:24 PM PST by shempy (EABOF)
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To: ChadGore
<<>> If 4.9% is full employment, what are the 4.9% actually doing ?
18 posted on 11/04/2005 1:38:37 PM PST by SirLinksalot
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To: SirLinksalot
Re: <<>> If 4.9% is full employment

This point may be argued by many, but any unemployment rate at or below 5% is simply the act of 5% of a population of 300 Million moveing from job to job, career to career.

USA = Full Employment.

TY GWB

19 posted on 11/04/2005 1:43:40 PM PST by ChadGore (VISUALIZE 62,041,268 Bush fans.)
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To: Borges
Is this sort of Luddite nonsense still being seriously entertained?

This is a "Oops, didn't read the article, comment, isn't it?

20 posted on 11/04/2005 1:45:03 PM PST by marktwain
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