The author is correct that the remaining productive class will have to bear the burden of supporting the latest new recruits in the FSA.
The government will be able to swoop in to the rescue by either taxing the companies using automation, or by raising the debt ceiling to kick the can down the road while creating more make-work programs.
It shows the economic ignorance of the power base. Politicians are trying to legislate winners instead of allowing the free market to determine the best business model. That never works out well for an economy because it lards the system with unnecessary rules and roadblocks that always have unintended consequences.
I say bring on the robots. I’m tired of dealing with my employees.
I’m not kidding. Between all of the bs, not getting the work done right, just doing the minimum all the effing time. It isn’t about money or benefits either. People want to be glamorous and sit in front of an air conditioner all day long.
I would think programming would be a bad choice. Remember how history repeats itself. Back in the seventies and eighties programmers were in high demand. Then the software producers put most of them out of business.
I was watching the new season of “True Detective” and one guys says that an E-cig is like sucking on robot cock- which may be a marketable skill.
In all seriousness, I think that it will even more tip the balance between labor and capital in the favor of capital. Own the robots and reap the returns.
Of course, the Progressives will try to divide the robots and claim that the Bro-bots are given the dangerous, lower paying jobs.
As a guy who repairs and maintains a wide variety of equipment, everything from Diesel engines, A/C, and some very high tech stuff, I can assure you, if there are humans involved anywhere in the process there will continue to be jobs.
I’m the guy between the design engineer and the people who are supposed to be operating and maintaining this stuff. I can assure you these jobs aren’t going away, there are just fewer people with the skill set to do it.
Just a couple of observations.
Generally very few people will open the book, read the instructions or understand that there is a troubleshooting section or manual available. When asked recently where to find the procedure I was performing on some very sensitive equipment I had to reply “In the manual, it’s that book you’re sitting on.”
We all like to blame the operators, but I have spent hours troubleshooting equipment only to discover the schematics were printing incorrectly, on another very recent occasion while testing for continuity within a cable again, the manual was wrong and the pin and socket points were printed 180 out.
So in my opinion they can bring in all of the automated systems they want to, they are going to have to find people with the skills to fix those systems. Finding the people to do that work is not going to be easy or cheap.