Large-scale automation is finally coming; but in China, not here

[Ought Six]

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...-years/242810/

I have been predicting this for years now, but I had hoped it would happen in America and bring manufacturing back here. Foxconn, the largest consumer electronics manufacturer in China and makers of Apple products, will be installing one million new robots in its factories in the next three years. Since they are the big boys in manufacturing in China, other companies will follow their lead. This is going to lead to a serious unemployment crisis in China among factory workers.

This is the beginning of another historic economic shift in our global society. IMO, this new automation boom will quickly go worldwide, and unemployment among the working poor is going to skyrocket. This will, of course, also negatively effect demand for basic goods.. The drop in demand for goods due to widespread global unemployment could trigger a planet-wide depression in our already weakened global economy, leading to severe social unrest.

This move away from semiskilled human labor to automation was always inevitable. It is not going to be pretty as workers and the business sector across the globe try to adapt to this new reality

[dharma]

Every new and disruptive technology, from printing press to cotton gin to automobile to computer, has resulted in greater prosperity and general employment. The ditch digger runs an excavator; John Henry is an airline pilot; weavers design microprocessors. Why should this be different?

[Ought Six]

True in the long run. The opposite is generally true in the short run, as new technologies throw large amounts of workers into unemployment. The adjustment period to the new reality is usually tough, and sometimes violent. It will be worse in third world nations whose economies are not diversified. So many of their workforce rely on lower-level manufacturing jobs that will be disappearing.

[dharma]

Ah. Yes, implicit in the above is the universe's constant refrain: adapt or die.

[Kassy]

The numbers are quite staggering but haven't we been using robots like this for ages?

[Auburn Boy]

This trend had to hit china eventually..,
Unskilled or semi-skilled human labor has been doomed since the first robots manufacturing lines were built.

[Ought Six]

Originally Posted by dharma

Ah. Yes, implicit in the above is the universe's constant refrain: adapt or die.

.... but first, riot and burn stuff.

[Ought Six]

Originally Posted by Kassy

The numbers are quite staggering but haven't we been using robots like this for ages?

The use of automation in the west is quite limited. Unions have fought against it rather successfully (big surprise). The Japanese use automation more than any other western nation (big surprise).