This is a good piece from CNN
Rise of the machines: Fear robots, not China or Mexico
I don’t know where the jobs are going to come from. Yeah sure, maybe Trump can get some of his buddies to build a few factories here, make a big deal about it.
They’ll be giant buildings, but tiny parking lots. Because the buildings will be filled with robots, not people.
These 2 podcasts have me great analysis & lots of food for thought on the foundation on this topic… we can’t predict, we don’t really have the tools. Yet, as your boy Grantham pointed out a couple years back – we are the 1st iteration of our species that can create our own energy. That’s something… give these a listen:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519?mt=2&i=1000380156472
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519?mt=2&i=1000380423141
I know I’m striking a chord when blackwellspace pings in.
I’ll listen today!
I’ve been listening to The Axe Files, here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/axe-files-david-axelrod/id1043593599?mt=2
I find David Axelrod to be balanced and insightful.
re: China
What looked like a good deal back then backfired. As the podcast describes, we thought making a deal with China, essentially having them make most of our stuff, would add to productivity. It’s been the opposite. Our quest for lower cost of production lowered wages and eliminated jobs.
Trump is doing Americans a big disservice by going around saying, “I’m gonna bring manufacturing back”. Because people equate that to jobs. He may be able to convince a few companies to open a manufacturing facility here. But the building will be filled with robots, not workers. Like I say, a big building with a tiny parking lot.
Instead, what Trump should be doing and what the podcast lightly touched on is education. Not sending people to college. No. The message to people displaced should be “The bad news is the jobs aren’t coming back. Maybe even worse news is that technology is moving so fast even we can’t keep up with it. All we know, is that robots and artificial intelligence is going to continue to wipe out more jobs.
“Now the good news. We know what the problem is and we feel your pain. We’ve got some ideas, but it’s going to take time. It took us years to get here and we there is no simple solution”.
So in other words, be honest with people. But he’s not doing that. Neither would have Clinton, had she won.
One idea I have is centered around food. Make money available to build green houses. Make money available to build clean soil. Make money available to get people healthier, which would lower health care costs. For example:
Let’s say the government gave me some money to start a health care consulting business. They gave me a year to start producing results. So I would get paid based on my clients blood pressure and body weight relative to height. The lower my clients blood pressure and the more their weight was in line with their height, the more I got paid. Bonus, if I got them off of most or all of their medications.
Our country is way overweight. Not by a little, by a lot. It’s costing us a lot of money. If we get people to eat food grown locally, they’ll be healthier. And that creates jobs. Jobs that can’t be automated or done with artificial intelligence. If we can lower their blood pressure, weight, and get people off of their meds, health care costs go down.
Trump got people to vote for him because of a shiny button message — “I’ll bring back jobs”. It’s bunk. Then, he doubled down in his inauguration speech — “Hire American, buy American”. More bunk. Are you willing to pay a lot more for your tech to have it made here? No. Are you willing to stop buying from Amazon? No. Neither am I, neither are most. I read comments on Breitbart.com, praising Trump and his “plan” to bring back jobs. This whole, nationalism message. Meanwhile, they’re typing on devices made in Taiwan.
But even if you were willing to pay a lot more for your stuff, would it make a difference? No. Because even if the companies didn’t use robots, the jobs inside of those plants will only pay a little above minimum wage. So it’s not like anyone is going to be able to do well working at these new jobs here. Not to mention the pollution that all these new buildings will create.
Trump’s whole pitch is empty and hollow. How he could win my vote is if he’d start telling people the truth. Then, bring in creative minds to work on the problem.
I see a big opportunity to make our country healthy again. Only problem is, Trump is obese. And he eats at McDonalds.
One more.
What’s the #1 employment group? Drivers. Truck drivers, delivery drivers, cab drivers, etc.
So what’s going to happen when driverless trucks, cars and drones make their way into our world in the next 5 years? More jobs lost. Millions of them.
Way more jobs are going to be lost than added. People need to be told the truth. The government’s role is not to save us — it’s to make money available so we can save ourselves.
Only problem is, the people running the government don’t believe in spending. They’re stuck in this industrial era time warp, where the meme is “if you work hard, you can make it. Buck up, son”. Never mind the fact that they never made any money on their own — they got it from their family. Trump’s dad gave him a million bucks to start in business. Look at Trump’s cabinet — none of them know what it’s like to have a zero balance in their checking account.
Trump’s cabinet and his advisors are oblivious as to what’s really happening in our country. How could they understand what you and I go through? They’re all billionaires. Just ask Trump.
Obama lined his cabinet with Harvard blue bloods. Now Trump is doing the same, but with billionaires. Oy vey.
The Republicans are all talking about “taking America back”, as if they have a time machine.
Bad news, man.