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Originally Posted by Barry-xlovecam
Job loss is overestimated -- robots cannot replace all workers.
Computers still need human supplied input or human supervision of the data being input. The typing pool at large business from the 1920-1960 era has ceased to exist but there are new types of office jobs. Copy machines are becoming more of a rarity as we can digitally transmit PDF and text data now -- paper optional. Ink and paper manufacturing has to adjust to less and different demands.
How many print shops are in your area today? Few. The printing industry had to downscale. Look at the manufacturers of computer and network equipment -- the was no Intel or Cisco 40 years ago.
Jobs change.
If we don't need coal mines because we have cleaner energy and heating with natural gas and solar power -- why do we need to keep a failing industry?
Construction, both residential and commercial will become more mechanized but we will still need tradesman for both new construction and repairs.
With the new e-commerce we do not need the same number of sales clerks on a retail floor. However, there are new jobs writing sales copy text for product pages and new jobs in web design, programming and server administration that did not exist 40 years ago.
We will still need mechanics and skilled tradesmen to build, maintain and repair the machines.
We will need less and less unskilled labor. We (1st World) will import less finished goods from the developing world for reason that our machines will bring production home with lower labor costs than humans. With machines for robotic electronics assembly; one day your PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone may be assembled in the US.
Maybe, creative jobs in the arts, philosophy and pure sciences will pay better. Theoretically, we should have more time for leisure.
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Most of those are bad examples to be honest.
The machine operator for example. Sure they will need 1 guy to watch over a machine that now does the work of 3 or 4 former employees.
You can see this in action at many big box stores today.. Look at walmart as example..
They used to have lots of cashiers now they have replaced them with a single person that watches over 6 or 8 self check out machines.
Those machines replaced 6 or 8 workers with 1.
My bank doesn't even have a drive up teller anymore. It's just a smart ATM machine with the option to talk to a teller probably in India..
As for the coal.. Coal is a dying industry but it's kept on, not so much because we can't replace it, but because it has powerful lobbyists and politicians in DC that will do anything possible to keep it alive for the votes in their home states..
The problem in the past we had the ability to absorb those people from old industry into new. However now it's much different and jobs are being attacked from all angles and places.
There will be a lot of people in the future that have no jobs. It's not just gonna be factory workers this time around.