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[–] SteelKidney 1 point 0 points (+1|-1) ago 

No, more progress = different employment. If we're going to protect all jobs eliminated by progress, then we'd better be prepared to become subsistence farmers. After all, advances in farming such as crop rotation and irrigation produced higher crop yields. This meant that fewer farmers were needed. The printing press eliminated scribe positions.

And you're ignoring the fact that progress creates jobs. Unless you think that Microsoft, Apple, Google, and everything Elon Musk touches hasn't resulted in any jobs. You know- producing their goods and services. Goods and services that weren't available 50 years ago.

So.... Do we all starve and die because capitalism?

No- we adapt.

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[–] TheBrokenWorld 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

How are you not seeing that you just illustrated how a large number of jobs were replaced by a small number of different jobs? Automation wouldn't be profitable if it didn't eliminate jobs.

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[–] SteelKidney 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

a large number of jobs were replaced by a small number of different jobs?

But those replaced by automation didn't just give up and die. New industries emerged with a need for workers. Some jobs were eliminated others became available due to new processes and technology.

I gave a more detail in this comment, but the gist is that if you just look at an isolated industry, then yes. Jobs are lost. But if you look at the economy and job force as a whole, then advances in technology result in jobs in industries that didn't exist previously. To wit, my job didn't exist in my parents' generation and was barely in existence when I was in college. Now it's a lucrative industry with raped growth. And will probably be obsolete in 30 years. Or not. Who knows?

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[–] Chrome-Titan ago 

Automation doesn't have to eliminate jobs. It can also increase efficiency or reduce the risk of making costly mistakes. I think it matters based on the gap of technology. A normal drill press can be replaced by an automated drill press with the operator now free to focus on inspection and proper equipment maintenance. Essentially focusing on a different aspect of the same job. Of course if your replacing a team of people who have a single corded hand drill with an automated press that entire team is going to suffer because the gap is so large.

This will definitely happen in things like taxi drivers. Of course those same drivers may become tour guides, using their vast knowledge of a city to tell people where to go and where not to go. The one's that are only good at following a GPS and driving a car will suffer though.

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[–] Medicroger 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Your not thinking macro enough bro.

It's not going to take the same amount of people working at MCdonalds to fix the MCdonalds robots.

That's the whole point. EVERYTHING will be automated and controlled with computers.

The future is one where people are obsolete.

Basic income is one of many ideas people have been debating about to adapt to the change.

Progress, more efficient means to produce, litteraly means less people will be needed to produce the same amount, so yeah.

New jobs with progress, but only a fraction of the ones that new technology, what ever it is, replaced.

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[–] SteelKidney 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

If you limit the jobs counted to only those directly impacted by automation, then you're right. But that's not a complete view.

When the subsistence farmers were no longer necessary because of better farming techniques, they didn't die off. They moved, urbanized, and began forming specialized trade. The same pattern emerges with most, if not all, progress in making production more efficient. The people no longer needed in one industry are available for hire in new industries. don't know if you're old enough to remember this, but back in the day we had the same angst over computers eliminating secretarial-type positions. However, out of that shift came ecommerce, software development, IT support, and smartphones. All providing very lucrative careers.

Yes. Manufacturing jobs are going away. That's been an undeniable trend for at least 15 years. I say 15 because that's when I first came across that topic at a conference I attended. Low-skill jobs are also going away. It's becoming more expensive to have employees. In low-margin industries such as grocery stores and fast food, that presents the challenge of adapt or die. But that doesn't mean a net decrease in jobs. Not necessarily. It means a shift in overall job focus. Whether or not that results in a net gain or loss depends on the overall economy's ability to shift.