Walmart Is Cutting 7,000 Jobs Due To Automation (yahoo.com) 256
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Yahoo: The clairvoyant folks over at the World Economic Forum warned of a "Fourth Industrial Revolution" involving the rise of the machine in the workforce, and the latest company to lend credence to that claim is none other than Walmart, which is planning on cutting 7,000 jobs on account of automation. But the Walmart decision may be a bit more alarming for those in the workforce. As the Wall Street Journal reports (Warning: may be paywalled), the most concerning aspect of America's largest private employer might be that the eliminated positions are largely in the accounting and invoicing sectors of the company. These jobs are typically held by some of the longest tenured employees, who also happen to take home higher hourly wages. Now, those coveted positions are being automated. The Journal reports that beginning in 2017, much of this work will be addressed by "a central office or new money-counting 'cash recycler' machines in stores." Earlier this year, the company tested this change across some 500 locations. "We've seen many make smooth transitions during the pilot," said Deisha Barnett, a Walmart spokeswoman.
All according to plan (Score:4, Interesting)
The sooner robots replace the workforce, the more leisure time we will have to enjoy life.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You'd be looking at a complete paradigm shift when it comes to economies. That is to say, not communism, not capitalism, nor any other economic system of the past. Things like housing could very well become irrelevant, much as not everything you currently take for granted has always been relevant.
For example: Why would you need to commute if there's no need for it? 200 years ago, nobody bothered; instead where they "worked" was less than an hour walk from where they lived. And since 90% of the population we
Re:All according to plan (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sorry, but you've got that wrong:
Ford didn't implement the 40 hour workweek until 1926.
http://www.politifact.com/trut... [politifact.com]
http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com]
Re:All according to plan (Score:5, Insightful)
In some ways the goalposts have moved but not in a simple linear progression. Because of technology, the poor can have cheap TVs and phones. But in trade, they now cannot afford a place to call home. If they tried the popular solution from the middle ages of pick out an un-occupied spot and build a house, the city would come arrest them and bulldoze the place. They can no-longer make a job for themselves by planting on the commons and selling whatever surplus they grow (In many places, you are not even permitted to plant crops on the land you own).
An income is no longer optional, but the ability to have an income is not guaranteed.
As has always been the case, the nobility doesn't trouble itself with these things.
Re: (Score:2)
How will you pay for what you need to live without a job, exactly? Or do you think we'll be living in some idealistic world where everything, including housing, is free?
If robots are doing all the work, what other alternative could there be?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
How will you pay for what you need to live without a job, exactly? Or do you think we'll be living in some idealistic world where everything, including housing, is free?
If robots are doing all the work, what other alternative could there be?
Camouflage? [animatedheroes.com]
where everything, including housing is free = jail (Score:2)
where everything, including housing is free = jail / prison. And they have doctors that do more then the ER and don't say we don't take Medicaid
Re: (Score:2)
A "Star Trek" type communist world without the liberal political correctness does sound awesome where all necessities are free. Course they have "replicators", but one if the books mentioned how money was done away with once people realized a faith based currency was meaningless. Now with that said I know "Utopian" society always falls apart.
Multiculturalism always fails and has in every society on Earth.
But here's done Utopian communist examples from an episode of Star Trek excerpt: https://youtu.be/pzqW0 [youtu.be]
Re: (Score:2)
I forgot to put Richard Lamm's 2005 leaked speech at liberal think-tank event
https://youtu.be/nFAQNjqH1zA [youtu.be]
Re: (Score:2)
During this transition people getting laid off are getting the worst of both worlds, still needing money while having difficulty finding work. As
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Coming eventually, but it seems a few dinosaurs are going to have to kick the bucket first. Sooner or later, politicians, boards, senior managers, shareholders, bankers and the like are going to have to accept lower returns. It is inevitable.
Re:All according to plan (Score:5, Interesting)
guaranteed minimum income
Never going to happen in this country. The status quo hangs on to their ideology like a junkie and his heroin. When the pitchforks come out then maybe, but I suspect the 1%, once they finish strip mining this country, will flee leaving us to rot.
Re:All according to plan (Score:5, Funny)
but I suspect the 1%, once they finish strip mining this country, will flee leaving us to rot.
So what you're saying is when the revolution comes invest in anti-aircraft missiles?
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect the 1%, once they finish strip mining this country, will flee leaving us to rot.
I thought the 1% were already trying to close the strip mines, and leave the coal miners to rot.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm a huge proponent of some sort of basic income solution, but I fear you're right. And it's not just the 1% who oppose it. There are a lot of working-class people who have a visceral opposition to "freeloaders" sponging off of their hard
Re: (Score:2)
I'm a huge proponent of some sort of basic income solution, but I fear you're right. And it's not just the 1% who oppose it. There are a lot of working-class people who have a visceral opposition to "freeloaders" sponging off of their hard work. It doesn't matter if you can show that such a system makes sense, it feels wrong to a heck of a lot of people.
My mother, who is *not* in the 1%, is like that. She's in her 70s and doesn't want to pay any taxes anymore because of all the freeloaders -- she watches a LOT of Fox News. She relents a bit when I remind her that taxes also pay for the Police, Fire Department, road crews, etc... Still, she bitches about Obamacare, even though she's on Medicare and my step-father is on Tricare (retired Air Force and Navy). They enjoy (if that's the right word) their single-payer health care, while begrudging me any atte
Jesus people (Score:3)
Ironically, the ones who scream the loudest against helping the "unwashed masses" are the Jesus people. Conservative Christians seem fundamentally not capable of allowing someone else a basic standard of life. And yes, that makes them bad people.
Re: (Score:2)
guaranteed minimum income
Never going to happen in this country. The status quo hangs on to their ideology like a junkie and his heroin. When the pitchforks come out then maybe, but I suspect the 1%, once they finish strip mining this country, will flee leaving us to rot.
Perhaps it's because people often try holding out for the best deal rather than accepting a reasonable deal, and I mean on both sides of the equation. Some of that is greed or competitiveness, but some is probably due to uncertainty about the future, so companies/people focus on the now.
Re: (Score:2)
It will look like the Scandinavian model on steroids; much higher taxes, but in exchange people won't be starving to death.
Re: (Score:2)
People starve to death right now. Why should the future be any different, just because your ticket is up?
Re: (Score:3)
No one starves to death in Scandinavia, unless they deliberately starve themselves. And even then, they'll probably be put in a psychiatric ward and force-fed or drip-fed.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Note that the standard in the USA for "hunger" is "missed a meal". By that definition, I have been suffering from hunger every year of my life, since I manage to be busy enough with something to miss a meal at least once a year....
Re: (Score:2)
Is it not priced like that where you live?
Re: All according to plan (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Post capitalism will have some form of universal income. It will need to otherwise capitalism will collapse."
A "post capitalist" society is, by its very definition, one where capitalism has already collapsed so, no, no need for some form of universal income.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
What's the alternative? What should be done when every available job requires such a high level of exceptional ability that only a couple of percent of the population have it? That is, when the only people who can outperform automated systems are those who are exceptionally intelligent, very talented as entertainers or have remarkable athletic capability. And the first category will keep shrinking when automation becomes more and more capable and the latter two cannot expect any remuneration either for what
Re: All according to plan (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: All according to plan (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually for almost 80% of the population, you are wrong.
Ability to afford a new car, a new house, a college education, high quality clothing, high quality food has been falling since 1980.
The top 20% are doing fine.
Having a smart phone doesn't make up for eating poorly (lotsa cheap carbs- no nutrients), being unable to get decent housing ($160,000 even 25 miles from town try buying that on $35k a year after taxes), or decent clothing (cheap knits that shred in a few years-- if that long).
Re: (Score:2)
So, since Jimmy Carter was in office.
Good to know.
Re: All according to plan (Score:5, Informative)
"The reason the economy rises is that the AVERAGE person has more ability to consume than prior."
You know that thingie called statistics. If I have one million in the bank and the other nine have zero, we all AVERAGE 100K in the bank. Still no good for those other nine.
"people will always find work"
What's that? the fifth law of thermodinamics, or something?
No, man, sorry: for most of History, people was absolutely unable to find work and it was more that a short elite forced them into work. What if that short elite has no work for them anymore?
"The 1% will make sure that people have propensity to consume. It's the natural order"
Again, have you ever opened a History book? Was a consumist society the "natural order" of ancient Egipt, or Greece, or Rome, or Middle Ages, or pre-revolution Europe? Was it the "natural order" along imperial Chine, traditional Japan, most Africa history or precolombine America?
Looking at the History book, it seems much more that your "natural order", if any, is for an elite taking benefit of most of the goodies squeezed out of a mass of people let just above the starving level. What if that elite manages not to need that mass of people to squeeze their goodies anymore?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"he answer is obvious, massive amounts of warfare"
Yes. To some extent, it's already happening now; you just need to look at big cities with large inequalities, say -now that the Olympics are still recent, Rio. There's a warfare situation there, it's only that, quite against the desires and hopes of the naive liberals here, is not poor people against elites ala French revolution but among the destituted themselves within their favelas, while the elites are living la dolce vita mostly within their militaril
Re: (Score:2)
This growing economy is presumably why the middle class and working population of America have seen no benefit from improvements in productivity since the early 1970s. http://www.epi.org/productivit... [epi.org] What you are missing about the 1% is that their wealth will logically move where the growth is - and that is not the USA, it is the Far East, Africa, China and other recently third world countries. You are very silly if you think the 1% are interested in investing in the American workforce whilst better retur
Re: (Score:2)
There are people starving today, but no one bats an eyelash. The alternative chosen so far is to stop making food for people that can't afford to pay for it. Instead, we make robots to do things for the remaining people that can afford it. Why do you think this will change?
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you think this will change?
Stein's law:
Re: (Score:2)
But as we all know, the rats you catch for dinner are only free if your time has no value.
Re: All according to plan (Score:2)
Our great country (Score:2)
The sooner robots replace the workforce, the more leisure time we will have to enjoy life.
Uh... no.
The measure of the US is its economy. So long as the corporations are making ever more profit, so long as GDP is on the rise, then we're doing great and nothing needs to be changed.
The people's needs count for nothing, it's the corporations and only the corporations that make our country great!
Re: (Score:2)
GDP is dominated by consumer spending. It doesn't measure profits, and has nothing to do with profits. GDP is only "on the rise" if people are buying stuff. In some hallucinatory economy where automated factories were spitting out consumer good that no one could buy, then sure, the most naÃve way GDP is measured could suggest it's healthy (but then, how do you value goods on one buys?), but most would say the GDP was collapsing if none of that production was part of the economy.
The GDP is the people
Re: (Score:2)
GDP is a measure of production. While it is true that there is significant influence from consumer spending, that isn't the only way GDP is affected, and most certainly the exchange of services also plays its part.
Cheaper than $15/hour (Score:2)
This is what's going to happen as people try to force $15 for bottom-rung unskilled jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
The sooner robots replace the workforce, the more leisure time we will have to enjoy life.
Maybe for those who own the robots. I can't imagine the money I make from my robots going to pay your rent. That would seem un-American.
Re: (Score:2)
That only works if the people collecting the savings spread their wealth around and allow us blue collar stiffs to actually take a break without leaving food off our table.
Re: (Score:3)
How are the Waltons going to live in the lap of luxury if nobody has jobs or income to buy stuff from them, as you seem to think?
Re: (Score:3)
They are psychopaths, they do not care about everyone else's future just their own, in reality as far as they are concerned the entire would along with the rest of us can die when they die. They pay for the PR, they buy politicians to lie for them and they will happily kill the rest of us to get ahead, in fact many of them enjoy that more than getting ahead, the power to decide who lives and who dies is intoxicating to them, look at Hillary and Obama cheering themselves and each other along.
It is far mor
Re: (Score:2)
Do you, in all honesty, care about people that are starving today in other parts of the world? Why is it so different when your ticket is up?
Re:All according to plan (Score:5, Insightful)
This benefits all shareholders, of which the Waltons are the largest.
Do you own index or mutual funds in a 401(k) account to fund your retirement? If yes, the "blood" is on your hands, too. You proportionally benefit as much as the Waltons when jobs are cut and money is freed up for other purposes, including returning it to the people who own the enterprise.
Anyone here a California public employee counting on a pension? How do you think CalPERS is going to achieve those rosy 7% returns to fund the payments to future retirees? Dividends, share repurchases, and growth from allocating retained earnings -- the shareholders own this money, after all -- in value-additive projects. Cutting the fat is one way of freeing up additional free cash for these purposes.
I think it's interesting how millions of Americans are shareholders who benefit from these moves as much as the fat cats.
Re:All according to plan (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, but do they carry the 80oz jar of pickles for under $5?
shades of The Twilight Zone (Score:3, Interesting)
There are many bromides applicable here ... too much of a good thing, tiger by the tail, as you sow so shall you reap. The point is that too often Man becomes clever instead of becoming wise, he becomes inventive and not thoughtful, and sometimes, as in the case of Mr. Whipple, he can create himself right out of existence. As in tonight's tale of oddness and obsolescence in the Twilight Zone.
closing narration, The Brain Center at Whipple's [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
On the other hand, replacing Brawndo with water crashed the economy in Idiocracy--until they realized it would save them. My analogy breaks down though because we don't know what sweet clear water there is to replace the monotony of a white collar mid-level position. We just know they're going away. Maybe these people can rediscover the joys of subsistence farming or something, and start watering their crops with Mt. Dew.
Not really (Score:5, Interesting)
Everything is not rosy with Walmart's penchant to do away with workers. One thing is an exploding crime problem at their stores because there is not enough personnel around. [bloomberg.com] Who wants to go shopping in a crime zone? That and a popular local Walmart has an extremely hard time keeping the store shelves stocked. It's wonderful to have low prices, but I usually am wasting my time going there only to see empty shelves.
So disposing of workers only goes so far. I simply do not believe that our android workers will arrive in the near future to mitigate these problems created by lack of workers.
Re: (Score:2)
That just leaves us more room to have mobility scooter races in the aisles. I'm trying to start a new hybrid sport that involves hopped-up mobility scooters and shotguns from he Walmart sporting goods department. You start at the hardware section and run a LeMans-style course around the store and you can use the shotgun (with beanbag rounds, for sa
Re: (Score:2)
Eventually those stores will go away. They're already centralizing and consolidating, as more and more people shop online there will be less stores necessary. The 'only' problem we haven't gotten over yet is "I need a pound of sugar to finish my cupcakes, run to the store" but between drones and instant delivery couriers, the cost of that will go down as well. There is HUGE overhead in grocery stores, between thefts, accidents and keeping a building not just running but safe for customers and space for us m
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Instead the milk man and the greengrocer would make their rounds and bring cheese, milk, and vegetables right to your door.
Maybe we will return to that model.
Maybe instead of a UPS truck there will be a wallmart truck driving around dropping off peoples food orders every morning.
Of course, you actually have to be home for this to work, or will they just leave it out by the door?
Re: (Score:2)
Depends on the local crime rate.
In some areas you can leave packages on your front porch for months and no one will take them.
In others you will return home to find someone has stolen the screen doors off of your home.
Re: (Score:3)
Everything is not rosy with Walmart's penchant to do away with workers. One thing is an exploding crime problem at their stores because there is not enough personnel around. [bloomberg.com] Who wants to go shopping in a crime zone? That and a popular local Walmart has an extremely hard time keeping the store shelves stocked. It's wonderful to have low prices, but I usually am wasting my time going there only to see empty shelves.
So disposing of workers only goes so far. I simply do not believe that our android workers will arrive in the near future to mitigate these problems created by lack of workers.
Amen! I stopped at a Walmart on the way home from a family reunion a few years ago in an area I assumed should be safe. A friend of mine had warned me about that location since it was near his home, but I thought he was joking. I was afraid I wouldn't make it back to my car. I had my kids lock themselves in the car while I put away the groceries. I never returned there again.
The Bloomberg article is eye-opening. The Walmart closest to me is a shithole. The shelves are frequently empty and the cust
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I'm sure automating away some invoicing and accounting positions from the HQ or service offices will cause the the individual stores to go empty and turn into crime zones.
Re: (Score:3)
automate the shoppers (Score:2)
Oh, wait, that's amazon....
100% Automation coming soon. (Score:5, Insightful)
And there is no economic model to tell us how that is going to work. But, not far in the future - many of us will see it, if we don't kill ourselves off first, all manual labor will be automated. And soon after that there will be no labor required to produce any products - production and distribution will be totally automated. At that point labor will have no value and our world economy will cease to exist.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Japan is building an autonomous letter farm in a building. Autonomous taxis are now operational in controlled locations. Fast food chains are evaluating autonomous fast food stores. Significant use of robotics in manufacturing has been reality for years. Significant automation in farming and harvesting has been a reality for years.
Sorry, you are wrong, and change always happens faster than expected. It is not always the change that is expected, but change none the less.
Re: (Score:2)
Manual labour in controlled and/or homogeneous environments will be automated, yes. Factories, warehouses, farms, transport, etc are all to some degree or another fairly good candidates for this.
Fixing stuff that's broken, though, will remain the domain of humans for a long time. We simply have too much infrastructure that would need to be heavily rebuilt to make it robot-repairable.
Re: (Score:2)
I disagree, I believe it will become cheaper to replace/recycle than to fix.
I do believe that most of us will not benefit and will devolve into some form of subclass and only the upper class with benefit. The rich will no longer need worker bees to make them money, so they will move away from employee based operations into totally automated production of things they want.
Re: (Score:2)
As long as the "worker bees" require money to buy the stuff "the rich" make, "the rich" will need "worker bees".
No, there's not going to be a "subclass", particularly. No more than now, anyway. What there will be is an increasingly large class of people who have the leisure time that "the rich" have now....
Re:100% Automation coming soon. (Score:5, Insightful)
It won't be 100% automation, it will be 99% automation, and we have a historical example in agriculture. It used to be that nearly everyone had to be a farmer, producing their own food to survive. Now a tiny fraction of the population can run the machinery to produce ample food for everyone.
So manufacturing and distribution is heading this way too? Great! I'm tired of paying $1000 for a refrigerator... When they get down to $10, you can tell me how horrible near-complete automation is for our economy. I've seen this happening in my own lifetime... The most basic power tools cost several weeks of salary a few decades ago. Now you can buy a complete drill for about 1-hour of minimum wage salary. Clothing used to be an investment, too, and sewing machines were everywhere so rips could be fixed. Now you just throw out anything with any imperfections.
When this model transfers over to home construction, medicine, and other skilled-labor-intensive industries, we'll be in good shape. Your biggest monthly costs getting driven down to 1% the price will let even the poorest live comfortably. And when you don't have to pack into a few big cities to get a high-paying job to survive, the expensive cities will slowly dissipate. People will disperse to cheaper areas and do some trivial little jobs that never-the-less easily pays for all their living expenses.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry, but this is bullshit.
How are the poor people going to get any money when there is no work? Most of the Jesus people in America would rather see those people die on the streets than to give them "hand outs".
Could everyone in America be fed, housed, clothed, educated and entertained with only 10% of the people working? Of course they could. But, this will never happen. The religious right will never allow it.
$10 refrigerator? Great! Can I have $10 please? (Score:3)
As the the other reply to your post said, how are people going to get *any* money if their labor can't be sold?
Face it, the more jobs get automated, the less labor can be sold for. And when automation gets cheaper in terms of resources than maintaining a person to do the same thing, then the people who own capital will do away with labor entirely.
Then, people who own "enough" will be fine, and the people who don't own will not be able to labor to make money.
"But there will always be new jobs" you say? Tha
Re: (Score:2)
Well, since no one will be employed, it wont much matter what it costs. Rest assured that it will be more than we can afford.
Then... back to lords and surfs.
Re: (Score:2)
100% automation won't ever be a thing as someone needs to maintain and correct the automated equipment.
I remember working at a biscuit factory one day, and due to a staff shortage I got assigned to a position to I'd never done before. "Supervise the automated strapping machine". My mind was blown, and I nearly died of boredom, but I was being paid $30/h to watch a machine do it's work.
Ford Motor Co. used a simple accounting system (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The "accounting by weight" method masked significant cash-flow problems in the company that threatened it with insolvency. Fearful a disruption to military production during WWII due to the company's financial state, the War Production Board quietly contrived to have Henry Ford II, then in his 20's, released from his Navy service, so he could return to Detroit and help manage the company.
There's a lot of white collar jobs... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But that could be such a good thing. We're actually moving towards post-scarcity economies, but we're to stupid to realize it, and the top 1% are too greedy to accept it.
Overblown (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course it is not a shock. That is the entire basis for the western economy. Eliminate all costs, i.e. jobs, until there is no one left who can afford to by your discount product.
Re: (Score:2)
No, it is not overblown.
Stop for a moment and think about the bigger picture. What happens when everything is automated? Where will you work? How will you pay your mortgage? Do you think that engineering cannot be automated? In time, it will be.
Are you a manager? Do you think all those managers will be needed when there are workers?
It does not take a crystal ball to see that this is the path we are on.
Industrial Revolutions: Then and Now (Score:2)
Industrial Revolution counting is a bit of a problem. The first two Industrial Revolutions are pretty much agreed on. The First (of course) from 1770 to 1850, when factories and steam power revolutionized the textile industry and transportation, and the second with the rise of the chemical industry and assembly line production from 1870 to 1914. Widespread use of electricity and the internal combustion engine after 1920 is often considered the Third Industrial Revolution, but some people consider it an exte
Accountancy (Score:2)
Doing my part to be a good corporate citizen, I recently agreed to be the "independent" member of a recruitment panel at my organisation, for some mid-ranking accountant positions. I'm not an accountant myself, but our HR rules dictate that one member of any recruitment panel must be from outside the area of the business that's hiring.
To be frank, I didn't really have the best idea of what accountants did with their days, but over the course of a week of interviews, I started to pick some of it up. And the
Re: (Score:2)
looking at what the accounting department does at my employer, most those jobs could have been automated decades ago.
Accounting and invoicing (Score:2)
Accounting and invoicing...
That's the people that sort stacks of paper, that copy/paste numbers from one spreadsheet to another, that have shorter lines to upper management, that are expected to linger around a company as necessary overhead, that have to be wooed in order to get necessary and over due stuff done and that are never targeted when optimizing. Yet now that are.
Seems logical. But I had expected blue collar to be sacked first. And that A&I would have been able to delay the chopping block
The Headline is Derogatory (Score:2)
It should read "Walmart is Cutting 7000 Jobs THANKS to Automation"
An observation. (Score:2)
In our time, automation is mostly an excuse for the transfer of wealth and power into ever fewer hands.
Automation should be illegal (Score:3)
I know, I know... I am a communist, socialist and all the rest of it, but it makes sense.
There are 1 basic rule of capitalism. Survival of the fittest.
It turns out, however, that survival of the fittest is not always the best approach when you want to hold a society together. That is why we have things like anti monopoly rules. The "end game" for capitalism is to eliminate all competition so that in the end, there is only one.
This of course is massively short sighted, given that most of the population will won't have jobs and then cannot afford to buy your stuff. Especially since most so many people in the US firmly believe that if you lose your job, you should be homeless and starve to death if you cannot find a new job in time. Being good the Christians that they are.
That is same with automation, It should not be allowed. Can low level jobs be replaced with robots? Of course they can. But what the fuck are the people going to do for work?
Is everyone going to be a manager?
Is everyone going to start their own business?
No, of course not. Instead, those people will go hungry. They will go without insurance. Their kids will not have an education.
This is bad for everyone.
Of course, we all know that we are at a point where most food items and "stuff" can be made nearly with complete automation. We can produce enough for every single person to eat and have a place to live and clothes on their back.
But... We wont. Because those people are lazy, and should die. Right?
Eventually, that will happen. Or at least I hope. But until that time, those people "need" jobs.
You do not "need" a cheaper iphone. You only "want" cheaper stuff.
Next time you shop at a discount store, ask yourself.. why is this item so much cheaper than the local mom and pop shop? What is this really costing me?
So much for higher education... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, in the US, we automate agriculture enough to get the workforce down to 2% of the population. Then we automate enough of the manufacturing sector to reduce it to 8% of the population, not including the millions of offahored factory jobs. Then we tell everyone they have to go to college and get at least a 4 year degree to have any hope of a stable future. The vast majority of people at non-top tier universities are doing the minimum required to get a degree, majoring in business or psychology or communications. In the past, all of those people were absorbed into random entry-level positions doing the kind of work Walmart is now automating. It's a ritual - party through 4 years, show up at the campus career center during your senior year, do a few interviews and pick Random Large Employer to work for as a Random Paper Processing Position. What exactly are people proposing that we do with these "C students," who number in the millions and contribute to society through taxes, buying stuff and raising little C students?
- Most of them don't have the aptitude for tech careers (many of which are being automated as well...)
- Most of them can't be trained in a skilled trade without asking them to go back through another 4 years of apprenticeship
- Almost none can become doctors, lawyers, etc. because the competition is so keen to get in to medical/law school
- They can't be investment bankers or management consultants, because those professions only recruit from the Ivy League
I know it's no one's dream to process paperwork, but it has traditionally been one of the most stable ways for middle-skilled people to earn a living and have a career. Students starting out as a Associate Paper Processor have the opportunity to become a Senior Paper Processor, then a Paper Processor Supervisor, Manager of Paper Processing, Director of Document Services, and so on. For everyone in corporate IT, think of all the paper processors we directly support, working away in their cubicles. Most are incapable of doing any more than a defined procedure on an input stack of work. If you suddenly say all these people are unemployed, what do you propose replacing their jobs with? When that good salary goes away, the government doesn't get its payroll tax, the unemployed person chooses not to buy a house and therefore doesn't pay property taxes into the system, they choose not to procreate and reduce the birth rate to an unsustainable level. And, they don't buy anything, meaning businesses can't sell the products they make.
I'm not saying we become Luddites and stop the automation, but we as a whole need to think about what we're going to do with a very large disaffected population. Look how much support Trump has among factory workers who are still unemployed or underemployed even though everyone's being told the economy is in OK shape. I'm one of those people who feels that full employment above all else should be the goal, even if we do make-work for some of it. You can't have millions of people sitting around with nothing to do and no purpose -- it will lead to massive crime over the long run as people get bored and tired of being broke.
Manna is finally coming (Score:3)
http://marshallbrain.com/manna... [marshallbrain.com]
The first part is a rather depression dystopia. The second part is pure utopia.
The "Click Next Admin" is next (Score:2)
I'm seeing this automation trend as well in IT. Cloud and software-defined everything is messing with the clear line between software development and systems administration. Unless it turns out to be just hype, and companies decide to keep their equipment onsite (not likely,) only a chunk of systems people will survive the next wave of automation. "DevOps" may be poorly defined now and the stuff of ironic-moustache, skinny jeans wearing SV startup hipsters, but it's definitely more mainstream now than it wa
In other words, 0.3% of Walmart employees (Score:3)
Walmart, and every other major company everywhere, has been replacing employees with technology at this rate--or more--for years.
Re: (Score:2)
As it always has been. As it always will be.
Or are we lamenting over the fact that accountants don't have to add by hand anymore as well?
Re: (Score:2)
DAMN THE ABACUS!
Re: (Score:2)
There's always something. Just like there always has been. I could train a 16 year old to do 80% of my job. It doesn't mean I'd be out of a job it means I'd get to work on the other 20%.
We survived combines and tractors in the field, we survived having to dig coal and minerals by hand we'll survive something automating TPS reports.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, the benevolent, all-knowing central planners have signaled the following over the past three decades: the central banks will collude to keep interest rates extremely low, and minimum wages will continue to increase in many jurisdictions. After all, these planners are more qualified than market participants to determine who should get paid what.
Regardless of one's political inclinations, I find it interesting how these factors (along with the ones you mentioned) interact to move the goalposts, i.e., whe
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Hopefully you are arguing for a guaranteed income in that case. Because of course, someone needs to buy the goods that walmart resells, or "middlemans".
Re: (Score:3)
Automation is inevitable as the capital cost falls. But increasing the cost of human labor accelerates the process significantly. Creative destruction is a good thing, but it does hurt individuals temporarily who will need to retrain and adjust. So the pace is no small thing, and accelerating the transformation is not benign.
That's the usual march of progress, as long as people find new jobs that's fine. If everyone were fit for higher education as doctors, engineers, lawyers and so on we'd not mourn the loss of taxi drivers and burger flippers. Not everyone is looking to solve hard, creative problems at work. Me, I'd probably get bored otherwise but lots and lots of people just want to be trained in a task, do that task and collect their paycheck. Those kinds of "doer" jobs are the prime targets for automation and disappearing