Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by CoolHand on Wednesday April 29 2015, @05:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the show-me-the-money dept.

The "real" challenge technology presents isn't that it replaces workers, but rather displaces them.

The robots perform tasks that humans previously performed. The fear is that they are replacing human jobs, eliminating work in distribution centers and elsewhere in the economy. It is not hard to imagine that technology might be a major factor causing persistent unemployment today and threatening “more to come.”

Surprisingly, the managers of distribution centers and supply chains see things rather differently: in surveys they report that they can’t hire enough workers, at least not enough workers who have the necessary skills to deal with new technology. “Supply chain” is the term for the systems used to move products from suppliers to customers. Warehouse robots are not the first technology taking over some of the tasks of supply chain workers, nor are they even seen as the most important technology affecting the industry today.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/scarce-skills-not-scarce-jobs/390789/

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Redundant) by RamiK on Wednesday April 29 2015, @08:25PM

    by RamiK (1813) on Wednesday April 29 2015, @08:25PM (#176818)

    Seems starting outside of context (the question asked) since it's more interesting to show the fallacy there and then moving to the obvious fallacy is too confusing despite the fact I selectively quoted the answer alone.
    Let me rephrase things more explicitly by starting with the less interesting interpretation:

    In context of the questions, if we're to take "and that the robots are saving him a lot of money", then it's wrong to say the job the 1 robot performs can be done by 1.5 humans since the added cost of wages/facilities/whatever far* exceeds that.
    Taking his answer outside of the context of the question seeing as it's the only alternate interpretation: If a robot + 1.5 humans are replacing a single human netting in profit then a skilled labor have been transformed into a low paying manual labor meaning the job is now terribly difficult, tedious and boring.

    *Carefully using the "far" quantifier keeping in mind he said "saving him a lot of money" and not just "saving him money".

    --
    compiling...
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   -1  
       Redundant=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Redundant' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   1