60,000 lose jobs to Robots

[Deleted]

Image: Up to 50% of the global workforce could be replaced by robots over the next four to five decades. Human workers are considerably more expensive.

BBC - Apple and Samsung supplier Foxconn has reportedly replaced 60,000 factory workers with robots. One factory has "reduced employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000 thanks to the introduction of robots", a government official told the South China Morning Post.

Foxconn has been criticized for years for inadequate working conditions, which led to a string of suicides at its manufacturing facilities a few years ago. Foxconn employees have complained of being overworked, sleeping in less-than-ideal dormitory conditions, and not being paid fairly.

Xu Yulian, head of publicity for the Kunshan region, added: "More companies are likely to follow suit." China is investing heavily in a robot workforce.

Economists have issued dire warnings about how automation will affect the job market, with one report, from consultants Deloitte in partnership with Oxford University, suggesting that 35% of jobs were at risk over the next 20 years.

Former McDonald's chief executive Ed Rensi recently told the US's Fox Business programme a minimum-wage increase to $15 an hour would make companies consider robot workers. "It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who is inefficient, making $15 an hour bagging French fries," he said.

An even more telling forecast was made by researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne in their 2013 paper "The Future of Employment," in which they predicted about 50 percent of jobs will disappear over the next four to five decades.

Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fox...ina-2016-05-25
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/25/11...ng-smartphones

[jdbond592]

Thanks Obama for inventing Robots.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Alternative Thread Title: Assembly line slaves with the highest suicide rates in the country replaced by pick and place assembly machinery.

It always feels a bit dishonest when people post pictures of humanoid looking robots to provide an enemy image, when most of those probably look like http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/pnp.jpg or http://www.stillinmotion.de/wp-conte...ry/kuka/02.jpg .

[Super Kami Dende]

Maybe this is more of a wake up call to stop breeding than it is about losing Jobs.

We need to cut this Worlds population by a good 50% over the next 25 years.

[Xerra]

Hmm does that mean eventually people will have to cross the border to Mexico to illegally work? The gradual replacement of those jobs would probably lead to a much more dire welfare state, I would only imagine the backlash against immigrants to get rather escalated as competition for jobs at any level would stir a bitterness in the population. Granted these are only thoughts on the U.S. I suppose with the EU people can float to other countries pretty easily.

[Deleted]

Maybe this is more of a wake up call to stop breeding than it is about losing Jobs.

We need to cut this Worlds population by a good 50% over the next 25 years.

I would certainly say that less humans are "needed" eventually.
Humanity will have a lot of dead weight it has to carry around the coming century.

[Xerra]

I would certainly say that less humans are "needed" eventually.
Humanity will have a lot of dead weight it has to carry around the coming century.

Your words are all based around Westernized cultures and reasoned thinking. Religion will take things back to the dark ages as be fruitful and multiple basically urinates all over the idea of pay attention to global population.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

Ther took er jerbs!

[Joresh]

In the 1700s the Luddinites tried to fight machines to prevent the industrial revolution from taking their jobs. Over 300 years later we still have jobs and machines have not taken over, I'm not going to hold my breath for a robot takeover of the job market

[Cæli]

This is only the beginning. Of course automation will replace jobs. It's simply a political problem and people need to understand we'll get to a point in the far future where the world will keep getting more optimized nullifying the need to have a job for most of the population, and that those people will need money to survive without having a job.
Maybe research should be the new kinds of jobs, I don't know, it's fairly complicated.
I can see how creative people can somehow get money in a future economic system but not everyone is creative enough.

[Rennadrel]

Alternative Thread Title: Assembly line slaves with the highest suicide rates in the country replaced by pick and place assembly machinery.

It always feels a bit dishonest when people post pictures of humanoid looking robots to provide an enemy image, when most of those probably look like http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/pnp.jpg or http://www.stillinmotion.de/wp-conte...ry/kuka/02.jpg .

Nah, that is a laser etcher, it isn't really classified as a robot. Robots usually have multiple axis of manipulation and have to be mounted somewhere that gives them full range of motion. Robots might not be as expensive as they used to be, but they will always require technicians and people to install them.

[Mifuyne]

I welcome our robotic overlords.

[Speaknoevil]

I'll take three that look like Joe Manganiello please.

[Dendrek]

I cannot see this being in any way good for society in the long term.

Some people like to imagine a Utopian society with basic income and free shit for everyone. That's not a Utopia. There's no guarantee a basic income will be a living income, nor for that matter a comfortable income. People living on a basic income will very likely be living in extreme poverty. And since you'd be relying on the government to provide it, they'd be forced to deal with the slowness of government bureaucracy, and the corruptness of special interest groups and the opposing party doing all they can to sabotage and limit it. A basic income will also create a much more entitled and lazy demographic -- it will be a social condition that kids grow up into. The value and demand for education will also decrease as the usefulness of it does. Why get a higher education, or for that matter even a high school education, if you don't plan on getting a job? And the biggest barrier to a basic income will simply be getting it put in place. It will be worse than the civil rights movement in how long it takes to see positive change because of the sheer number of people who will be opposed to it.

Other people like to imagine that other jobs will open up for those who are left without work. Afterall, throughout industrial history, as factory jobs have been replaced by automation and outsourcing, those displaced workers eventually found jobs in other fields. But if 35% of all jobs are replaced in the next 20 years, how the hell are those people going to find other jobs? Especially since the majority of the jobs that are lost will be low-skill jobs. It won't happen. And if it does happen, it won't be a fast or pretty transition.

I mean, there's a possibility this will all work out for the better and the transition won't be a painful one. History tells us that's not going to be the case. But I suppose one can dream.

[Deleted]

In the 1700s the Luddinites tried to fight machines to prevent the industrial revolution from taking their jobs. Over 300 years later we still have jobs and machines have not taken over, I'm not going to hold my breath for a robot takeover of the job market

Now I personally completely support progress and technology but this time it may not be true and a new approach may be needed.

We still have jobs now cause humans have always been better at something or to be able to do things machines cant do but take your average person with high school or lower education and ask what he or she can do that cant be done by a machine either now or a decade from now. There just arent that many things left and even if you invent a new job, you have to understand the fact that most of those people arent that bright and that new job can also be done by a robot.

But to be fair, this is the old way of thinking. Why would we even need to have jobs? Id assume most people actually dont want to work, especially on minimum wage, crappy jobs. So if we have robots that can free up a large percentage of the population, robots that can grow food and build stuff.. I dont see why we cant have basic income in the future.

- - - Updated - - -

I cannot see this being in any way good for society in the long term.

Some people like to imagine a Utopian society with basic income and free shit for everyone. That's not a Utopia. There's no guarantee a basic income will be a living income, nor for that matter a comfortable income. People living on a basic income will very likely be living in extreme poverty. And since you'd be relying on the government to provide it, they'd be forced to deal with the slowness of government bureaucracy, and the corruptness of special interest groups and the opposing party doing all they can to sabotage and limit it. A basic income will also create a much more entitled and lazy demographic -- it will be a social condition that kids grow up into. The value and demand for education will also decrease as the usefulness of it does. Why get a higher education, or for that matter even a high school education, if you don't plan on getting a job? And the biggest barrier to a basic income will simply be getting it put in place. It will be worse than the civil rights movement in how long it takes to see positive change because of the sheer number of people who will be opposed to it.

Why would they live in extreme poverty? It would probably be something as the minimum wage is now plus child support and things like that. The education system also needs a reform. Its currently archaic, ineffective and has a lot of obsolete stuff. In fact, even now, it would probably be possible to get a better education without leaving your screen and it would probably be far more effective as it can be personally tailored. No professor can even address the concerns of every student or even remain completely unbiased. As for motivation.. well, who wants to only have a minimum? Why do people become doctors and lawyers now instead of opting for min wage jobs? It's hard work and you have to live in pretty crappy conditions for at least 5 or more years before you can start earning.

[Aggrophobic]

what's the difference between this and people losing jobs to horses? or people losing jobs to tractors? or people losing jobs to the internet?

nothing

For once, I agree with you.
It's the same thing.

[Deleted]

I think people who dissmis this are up for a rude awakening. This will probably be one of the largest issue our generation will have to face.

[Airlick]

Maybe this is more of a wake up call to stop breeding than it is about losing Jobs.

We need to cut this Worlds population by a good 50% over the next 25 years.

And how are you going to get it done? 3 billions of people aren't going to die on their own within 25 years. 50 years, maybe, assuming we don't get any births starting tomorrow. So should we get the doom camps rolling again, or are we going to use nukes or a deadly virus?

[Cosmic Janitor]

Nah, that is a laser etcher, it isn't really classified as a robot. Robots usually have multiple axis of manipulation and have to be mounted somewhere that gives them full range of motion. Robots might not be as expensive as they used to be, but they will always require technicians and people to install them.

I know what people in the industry think of when they say robot, I'm just convinced that when the media says robot they mean everything that has some kind of motion, even if it is a drill press. If they managed to replace 60k people in one fell swoop with machines I highly doubt they employed only highly versatile robots that take a lot of work to properly program . Especially at a mass electronic assembler like Foxconn.

[Exotath]

Good, robots have been oppressed for too long.