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quade

What jobs will employ the masses?

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The true robot threat to humanity isn't some Skynet terminator judgement day, but the obsolescence of even the lowest wage worker. There will be a one percent world served by robots and a 99 percent unemployment rate.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/this-robot-barista-promises-a-perfect-cup-of-coffee/280658/

What jobs will employ the masses?
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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masterblaster72

***What jobs will employ the masses?


Fracking jobs, because the energy companies said so in their websites and advertisements.

I'm going to wager a guess that the vast majority of those jobs will also go to robots and will the jobs of coal miners.

There will absolutely be some high-level engineering jobs and project management positions, but relatively few compared to the mass of people displaced by robots.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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quade

The true robot threat to humanity isn't some Skynet terminator judgement day, but the obsolescence of even the lowest wage worker. There will be a one percent world served by robots and a 99 percent unemployment rate.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/this-robot-barista-promises-a-perfect-cup-of-coffee/280658/

What jobs will employ the masses?



Cannon fodder, sedan chair bearer, Soylent Green main ingredient.

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ryoder

Someone needs to install & service the robots.:P



Nope. We're well past spoiler period in for the movie Elysium, but that was one of my big issues with it. The robots were sophisticated enough to do all sorts of precision work. Hell, even today FoxxCon is replacing it's human workforce with robots to make products like iPhones. If robots can make something as precise and elegant as an iPhone, they sure as hell can make other robots. So why were humans such as the Matt Damon character ever given jobs to build them? Made zero sense.

In the future, robots will repair robots. I don't think that's even speculation. Simply a fact that hasn't happened yet.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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I read a book called Peoples' Capitalism back in college, which proposed the idea that an automated workforce could generate income for people via individual shareholder investment in that automated workforce. Of course, the book was written at a time when there was this idea that the advent of computers in the workplace would result in more leisure time and a four day workweek.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

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>The true robot threat to humanity isn't some Skynet terminator judgement day, but
>the obsolescence of even the lowest wage worker.

Solution - gradual reduction in hours worked per week. Since 1970 every single quintile has been going up in average real income. You could gradually reduce hours for every quintile and keep income the same.

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billvon

>The true robot threat to humanity isn't some Skynet terminator judgement day, but
>the obsolescence of even the lowest wage worker.

Solution - gradual reduction in hours worked per week. Since 1970 every single quintile has been going up in average real income. You could gradually reduce hours for every quintile and keep income the same.



Overhead is huge still.

3 guys at 40 hours a week each is still a LOT less expensive than employing 4 guys at 30 hours a week each.....

so this is, in essence, a proposal for redistribution, really

I don't think individuals would want to be gradually reduced in hours. Many like to work and more hours would still be negotiable to more pay.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

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>Overhead is huge still.
>3 guys at 40 hours a week each is still a LOT less expensive than employing 4 guys
>at 30 hours a week each.....

Agreed.

>so this is, in essence, a proposal for redistribution, really

So is all work - you are redistributing money from companies to employees. This is just another way to do it.

>I don't think individuals would want to be gradually reduced in hours.

Some will, some won't. The high powered executive, or the doctor who just loves surgery? Probably won't want to work less. An engineer whose real passion is skydiving, or a mother who has gone back to her job after having a child? They'd be more likely to want to do that.

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billvon

>The true robot threat to humanity isn't some Skynet terminator judgement day, but
>the obsolescence of even the lowest wage worker.

Solution - gradual reduction in hours worked per week. Since 1970 every single quintile has been going up in average real income. You could gradually reduce hours for every quintile and keep income the same.



This makes no sense when it comes to the masses. What you're suggesting is the company who currently has an average skilled worker at $10/hour, 40hrs/week, is going to decide to work him for 20 hours and pay him $20/hr? That's nonsense and especially if the worker can be replaced by a $300,000 robot that can work 24/7/365 for 3 years AND be amortized over those three years as a capital expense.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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I think on a long enough time line most jobs will be taken over by Robots, so the question becomes what do we do?

We will still have entertainment jobs, and creative jobs, but all other jobs are goon.

So what do we do then, socialism? population control (which I think we already need) ?
Don’t have any answers just think it is inevitable unless we blow ourselves up.
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

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Darius11

I think on a long enough time line most jobs will be taken over by Robots, so the question becomes what do we do?

We will still have entertainment jobs, and creative jobs, but all other jobs are goon.



Robots have already started horning in on the entertainment jobs - robot wars, robot boxing (from the classic toy to the currently mythical life size shown in "Real Steel," and race cars can't be far behind either.

But I'm convinced all these robots will need shrinks as soon as they're smart enough to have a Woody Allen crisis.

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>What you're suggesting is the company who currently has an average skilled
>worker at $10/hour, 40hrs/week, is going to decide to work him for 20 hours and
>pay him $20/hr?

No. They used to pay him $10 an hour at 40 hours a week and will now pay him $10 an hour at 38 hours a week. Since 30 years ago they were paying him $9.50 an hour (in real dollars) he's making the same money his father was - but working 2 hours less.

Continue this for a few generation and you have more people working the same hours, with each person working less - but making the same money.

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billvon

>What you're suggesting is the company who currently has an average skilled
>worker at $10/hour, 40hrs/week, is going to decide to work him for 20 hours and
>pay him $20/hr?

No. They used to pay him $10 an hour at 40 hours a week and will now pay him $10 an hour at 38 hours a week. Since 30 years ago they were paying him $9.50 an hour (in real dollars) he's making the same money his father was - but working 2 hours less.

Continue this for a few generation and you have more people working the same hours, with each person working less - but making the same money.



Dafuq? 10*40 = 400/week, 10*38 = 380/week ... 10*20 = 200/week

How do you figure they're making "the same money"?

Further, several generations down the line, how the hell is he paying his rent?
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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>Dafuq? 10*40 = 400/week, 10*38 = 380/week ... 10*20 = 200/week

10*40=$400

Now -

9.50*40=$380 (what he made 30 years ago)
10*30=$380 (what he will make when he drops 2 hours)

>How do you figure they're making "the same money"?

$380=$380

>Further, several generations down the line, how the hell is he paying his rent?

He is still making $380, but now working only 30 hours a week.

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rehmwa


so this is, in essence, a proposal for redistribution, really



Sure and it won't work because not everyone will have the aptitudes needed to share the remaining jobs.

Ultimately we're going to get to the point that most of our population can't work for private industry except as human conspicuous consumption (uniformed human maids, gardeners, cooks, and butlers) for the very well off and there won't be enough of them to employ the rest of us.

Once past that point those people will be receiving government stipends and voting for politicians who ensure the payments are not stingy.

It'd be prudent to plan ahead for that and avoid a crash landing.

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I still fail to see how this solves anything when you can completely replace the human for less money.

Let's say I have 20 employees working for 40 hours per week for a total of 800 labor hours. Why on earth would only replace 1 of them when I can replace maybe 15 of them?
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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billvon

>I still fail to see how this solves anything when you can completely replace
>the human for less money.

It reduces the availability of human labor, thus at least in part balancing the reduction in demand for human labor.



I think you are vastly underestimating the number of employees that will be replaced by robots.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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