Robots and the Future of Unemployment

http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/08/robots_and_the_future_of_unemployment.php

by msluyter • 17 years ago

16 26 17 years ago

business.theatlantic.com

kiba2• 17 years ago

When there's scarcity, there's alway work. The only issue is what prices you are willing to accept or is allowed to accept for your labor.

If there are no scarcity, then there are no need for the existence of jobs and we all live happily in a utopian society.

ivankirigin3• 17 years ago

There is always scarcity of time and aesthetics.

yummyfajitas• 17 years ago

Neither of which can be provided by unskilled workers.

bsaunder2• 17 years ago

Ironically, how much of the scarcity of time is caused by the need to work?

msluyter• 17 years ago

The problem, however, is that somewhere along the way to that utopian society, there's a point where our traditional economy collapses because too many people are structurally unemployed. How do we handle that? What replaces our traditional economy? That's the interesting question, IMHO.

bsaunder2• 17 years ago

I think the trick is to automate the production/maintenance of our basic needs (food, housing, transportation(?), energy(?)). Seems like we will have a lot of free time in our future (making it less scarce, perhaps but still finite).

timwiseman4• 17 years ago

Good question. One possible, partial answer is through making it easier to gain the new skills needed. The unskilled labor market can die relatively peacefully so long as there is a proper glid path to skilled labor for those people being displaced.

modeless5• 17 years ago

I don't expect this to be a problem within my lifetime. As we get more efficient we can easily reverse the trend toward 2-income families, and then start shortening the work week. Who could say no to a 32 hour week, or even shorter?

At some point we may have to switch to an alternative economic system not based on labor (perhaps Cory Doctorow's "Whuffie", and I recommend "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" for anyone interested), but that will be a long time from now and I suspect by then the choices will be more obvious and incremental.

natrius3• 17 years ago

The problem is that today's unskilled workers aren't going to be the robot owners of the future. Increases in productivity will allow us to produce more with less work, but access to those gains won't be equal. You can't just start making everyone work less and have the numbers magically work out to support everyone. You would have to force those who own the means of production to share their wealth with those who don't.

How old are you? If you're less than 40, I wouldn't be so sure about this not being a problem in your lifetime.

modeless5• 17 years ago

"today's unskilled workers aren't going to be the robot owners of the future"

Careful with your crystal ball there; you might end up sounding like the people who predicted similar things about computers. Robots will become very cheap in the future; they won't be exclusive to the "bourgeoisie".

"You can't just start making everyone work less"

Who said anything about making? That's far too authoritarian for my liking. People will choose to work less when they can achieve the lifestyle they want with less work. It will take a while for this to become socially acceptable, but I think it will happen.

I am less than 40, and I would be happy indeed if this became a problem during my lifetime, but I'm still skeptical.

Robots and the Future of Unemployment

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