[LINK] When robots do the work...

Jim Birch planetjim at gmail.com
Wed May 29 13:20:14 AEST 2013


An interesting look ahead to a time, estimated to be not too far hence like
2040, when robots will replace the majority of human workers.

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/05/robots-artificial-intelligence-jobs-automation

"WHAT CAN WE DO about this? First and foremost, we should be carefully
watching those five economic trends linked to capital-biased technological
change to see if they rebound when the economy picks up. If, instead, they
continue their long, downward slide, it means we've already entered a new
era.

Next, we'll need to let go of some familiar convictions. Left-leaning
observers may continue to think that stagnating incomes can be improved
with better education and equality of opportunity. Conservatives will
continue to insist that people without jobs are lazy bums who shouldn't be
coddled. They'll both be wrong.

Corporate executives should worry too. For a while, everything will seem
great for them: Falling labor costs will produce heftier profits and bigger
bonuses. But then it will all come crashing down. After all, robots might
be able to *produce* goods and services, but they can't consume them. And
eventually computers will become pretty good CEOs as well.

Solutions to this will remain elusive as long as we resist facing the real
change in the way our economy works. When we finally do, we'll probably
have only a few options open to us. The simplest, because it's relatively
familiar, is to tax capital at high rates and use the money to support
displaced workers. In other words, as *The Economist*'s Ryan Avent puts it,
"redistribution, and a lot of it."

There's not much question that this could work, but would we be happy in a
society that offers real work to a dwindling few and bread and circuses for
the rest? Most likely, owners of capital would strongly resist higher
taxes, as they always have, while workers would be unhappy with their
enforced idleness. Still, the ancient Romans managed to get used to it—with
slave labor playing the role of robots—and we might have to, as well."



More information about the Link mailing list