(03-18-2017 06:23 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: (03-18-2017 05:54 AM)q5sys Wrote: (03-17-2017 07:25 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: And automation will create new jobs building and operating and maintaining those automated systems.
Except the people being replaced by automation... aren't going to have the necessary skills or intelligence to become robot service technicians.
Walmart shelf stockers, fast food workers, etc are not going to have the capability to get one of those higher paying automation technicians jobs.
There is a huge section of society that is going to be unemployable in the next 50 years. And for everyone that wants to claim 'oh they can go back to school' or some similar line. Remember the average IQ in this country is right around 100. Half of society has below average intelligence. They are cognitively incapable of learning the necessary skills to compete for higher skilled jobs.
It's not a matter of them not being willing to strive for those jobs... they fundamentally will be unable to meet the mental requirements for them.
So you reform our education system, including a much more vigorous and rigorous vocational/technical track, to give more of them the skills they need.
This is what I feel is generally getting lost on when the topic is discussed. As non PC as it is... people have limits of what they are cognitively able to do. This is the limiting factor, that no one wants to address. I don't think reforming education is going to solve anything, because you have people who are unable to be educated beyond a certain point.
In the past when there were tons of manual labor jobs, it didnt matter. They could still preform that form of labor and provide for a family and be a benefit to society. The number of manual labor jobs in the future is going to be significantly smaller than it is now. The people who just arent cognitively able to learn more will find themselves in the jobless line. I have good friends who never got past Algebra 1 before graduating high school because they don't have the mental capacity. They are great people, and I hope they are in my life for a long time... so please don't think I'm trying to slander them. But it doesn't change the fact that the reason one of them has a job driving a truck in a quarry is because he's not able to do anything else. Anything that requires critical thinking or deductive reasoning is beyond him. He's able to drive a truck because it's a simple job. Point A to Point B. He moves when it's his turn. He makes a decent living for him and his family... but in 20 years, that job is most likely going to be gone.
My best friend owns a farm and just bought a new tractor last year with GPS guidance. All he had to do was drive the tractor around his fields once to program the path he wanted, and it'll do it on its own now. He no longer hires high school kids to drive his tractors during the summer because he has no need for them.
I could go on but I really think CGP Grey did it WAY more justice than I can in his piece "
Humans need not Apply"
He makes a fantastic parallel between the plight of horses in the 20th century and humans in the future. I can't recommend this video enough, for anyone pondering the issue of automation and future employment issues.
This is a massive issue that our society is facing on the horizon, and I haven't heard a good way to deal with it. I have no idea what the solution is... or if there even is a solution. What I'm trying to do is wrestle with the possibilities and figure out how society will continue to function as a whole when huge amounts of society are unable to work. I consider myself to be a libertarian in many regards... but this is one issue that I cannot resolve with those ideals. Striving to achieve is a great thing as long as the possibility to achieve exists. When it no longer exists... how do these people eat? As much as I do NOT like socialism, I am trying to resolve the conflict of how society can function when a huge segment will be unable to provide for themselves through no fault of their own.
I dont know the answer... and I fear that right now... no one does.