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Portentous changes to the work economies of India and the USA due to job automation by machines and robots continue to make headlines. Varieties of hardware and software automation are seeing implementation burgeon in both countries, as companies seek efficiency by replacing humans with machines. Wage erosion in areas previously unaffected by automation - including varieties of programming - is getting commoner while new, albeit highly specialized, engineering jobs are created. Both articles encourage educational changes mindful of these realities, though how colleges either side of the world can adapt to the blistering pace of automation is unclear.
The latest tranche of job automation news comes hot on the heels of Davos' prediction that machine automation will result in a net loss globally of over 5 million jobs prior to 2020.
(Score: 2) by Mr Big in the Pants on Thursday February 11 2016, @08:31AM
I am talking about rethinking the way we look at our economy.
Currently the conventional wisdom across the board is that the economy is there to be exploited as much as is legal by those that can. (NB: Usually the "can" part uses language of being "entitled to" and "deserving of" etc)
But I see the economy as the engine that should work for ALL the people. If it is ever found not to be working in this manner, something should be done.
Gross inequality and poverty being present, for example, should be considered abhorrent and a symptom of a badly functioning economy. Much like starvation and disease in the body. Likewise poor education, healthcare etc etc. Measures have been created for this (usually referred to as the "happiness index")
Currently we rate economies solely on measures such as:
- GDP: A completely inappropriate measure of economic health. e.g. A natural disaster, housing bubble or mass borrowing from overseas causes GDP to go up...which is good?!
- Stock market growth: Again, a very raw indicator and subject to international factors and having a chaotic, cyclic nature.
- Unemployment: Of the three the most useful although it does not mention quality of jobs or wage growth above inflation.
But this is just a long winded version of saying moving away from the greed based economy. And yes, I know it will not happen because people are sheep for the most part and governments are corrupt.
But I guess what I am showing is that we have no lack of solutions, just the will to change.