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Unread 14-01-2013, 21:32
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Re: 60 Minutes - Are Robots Hurting Job Growth?

The basic economic result of robotic labor is that instead of having one factory with 100 people making 100 products, you have 10 factories with 10 people each making 1000 products total.

/gross oversimplification

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ether View Post
One man works in a factory stamping out parts 8 hours a day for 40 years and is perfectly happy doing so. He loves and provides for his family and his fulfillment is not related to his work.

Another man works in an office as an engineer and enjoys the challenge of creating designs and learning something new every day.

Swap these two men and they'd both be miserable.

Unfortunately, the first man's job is being eliminated by outsourcing and globalization. This is not an easy problem to solve.
Outsourcing and globalization don't eliminate those jobs. They move them to foreign countries where other people are just as happy to do the same job.

In fact, because of the lower wages and standards of living in foreign countries, the effective result is that instead of (for example) one person getting paid $50,000 in the US for a job, there are five people in developing countries getting paid $10,000 each, but they are perfectly happy to do those jobs because it is an improvement compared to what they're used to, increasing overall happiness.
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Originally Posted by dlavery View Post
I once started to build a time machine. But then I went back in time and told myself that it wouldn't work, so I gave up on it.
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