SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Good news! Automation capable of erasing white collar jobs is coming, but not for a decade or more. And that’s also the bad news because interest in automation accelerates during economic downturns, so once tech that can take your job arrives you’ll already have lived through another period of economic turmoil that may already have cost you your job.
That lovely scenario was advanced yesterday by professor Mirko Draca of The London School of Economics, who yesterday told Huawei’s 2018 Asia-Pacific Innovation Day 2018 that the world is currently in “an era of investment and experimentation” with technology. The effects of such eras, he said, generally emerge ten to fifteen years in the future.
Innovation in the 1980s therefore sparked the PC and internet booms of the mid-to-late 1990s, and we’re still surfing [SIC - suffering?] the changes they unleashed. “Our current era of mobile tech doesn’t measure up to the radical 1990s,” he said, as shown by the fact that productivity gains appear to have stalled for a decade or more.
[...] “We predict that AI and robotics will lead to some sort of productivity surge in ten to fifteen years,” he said, adding that there is “no clear evidence” that a new wave of technologies that threaten jobs has started.
But he also said that it will once businesses see the need to control costs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 11 2018, @06:40PM
I think this is a case where both sides of the spectrum are right. Wages haven't kept pace with the inflation of health care and housing; most people suck at managing money. I guarantee the hypothetical person making 35k could have done more to reduce expenses and bring in more money. Roomates, moving closer to work and biking/walking, buying a cheaper vehicle, reducing utility costs (thermostat changes), cutting unnecessary services, better shopping skills, etc. Poor people tend to suck more at it because being poor is stressful, and stress causes a decline in decision making ability. The poor often get stuck paying more interest and higher unit prices due to not having the cash to optimize their procurement. It is easy to blame greedy rich people or stupid poor people. What would help is changes to the public school system. Instead of having parents pay for lunches and supplies, the tax base should cover the entirety of school supplies as well as provide three healthy meals a day for students. As far as how to pay for it, lets start with getting rid of ever more bloated administrations and other inefficiencies Everyone who has had a job has seen their employer stupidly waste money. These same people who suck with money (most people) are the same ones managing schools and passing budget bills at all levels of government. If taxes need to be raised, so be it. Who can argue that children, who through no fault of their own, shouldn't have access to proper nutrition and a reasonable education? Make financial literacy a priority starting in elementary school. Make it a graduation requirement. While we are at it, make stress management and interpersonal skills part the curriculum as well.