SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the who-is-going-to-ask-if-I-want-fries? dept.
72 years after [Clarence Saunders] attempted to patent his idea, advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and other technologies are making the dream of a worker-free store a reality. And American cashiers may soon be checking out.
A recent analysis by Cornerstone Capital Group suggests that 7.5m retail jobs – the most common type of job in the country – are at "high risk of computerization", with the 3.5m cashiers likely to be particularly hard hit.
Another report, by McKinsey, suggests that a new generation of high-tech grocery stores that automatically charge customers for the goods they take – no check-out required – and use robots for inventory and stocking could reduce the number of labor hours needed by nearly two-thirds. It all translates into millions of Americans' jobs under threat.
(Score: 4, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:39PM (2 children)
I can also see other major issues appearing:
anti-immigration (they took his jerb!)
Luddites (robots took his jerb!)
"class warfare" (they have a jerb and he don't!)
The old horse buggy/whip/horseshoe maker analogy doesn't apply anymore as they had a near 1:1 replacements. buggy driver-> truck driver, buggy maker -> truck body builder, whip maker -> upholstery maker (this might be a stretch), blacksmith -> truck mechanic. Now we have: job X -> robot. You can't turn a cashier into a robot mechanic because they don't need a 1:1 technician to robot replacement. They are screwed.
Those unemployable people will quickly turn on anything or anyone who they perceive as the reason for their poverty. Immigrants will fill an already saturated job market increasing competition. People with jobs will be resented by the jobless. Engineers who work with automation technologies might even become targets of violence from neo-luddites (unabombers).
A plan has to be worked on now as we are on the cusp of widespread automation and job elimination within the next two decades.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Snow on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:14PM (1 child)
It a good thing we have Trump at the helm. He'll make some great deal to fix this mess.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:19PM
The best deal.