Rise of the Robots – Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future: an interview with Martin Ford
M&Gโs Jim Leaviss interviews Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future.
While technology is often heralded as a boon for productivity, in reality it hasnโt brought the improvements we might have expected in recent times. Nevertheless, as Ford explains, machines are increasingly capable of taking over a lot of the work currently done by humans.
Sceptics may argue that we have faced such challenges before. But the difference today is that machines are starting to be capable of thought. As such, it is not only manual jobs that will be under threat from robots operating in factories. Many types of routine computer-based tasks can also be automated using software.
These developments may help corporate profitability in the short-term, as firms become more efficient. But there are more worrying implications longer term: if too few people are either in the workforce or earning decent wages, who will generate demand for the products that robots are producing? After all, as Ford explains, robots donโt earn salaries.
If we see a leisure society, where there is no longer a need to work, as the most optimistic outcome, what needs to happen for it to be achieved? Ford believes that governments and populations must accept the need for unprecedented economic policies, and that an eventual move towards guaranteed incomes for all is in some sense inevitable.
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When I started college (while in the Navy) in 1976, my initial major was Industrial Engineering. I was fascinated with processes of automation, and the obsession to always improve and make processes more efficient. It was not long before I became aware of the potential of automation and technology to displace human work… and I began to worry for the future of mankind. Our world is built around work, which allows us to have "things" and to have time to enjoy leisure. Work is where most of us direct our sense of purpose, and even our sense of self (we are what we do). The Utopia of Universal Livable Wage will never happen… we are a greedy species, and those who rise to the top of the food chain are usually the greediest among us. I don't see a future without work, and apparently neither does someone as smart as Martin Ford. We are lucky to live in this world of wonders… but I fear for our future heirs… tough times to come.
The accumulative effect on my brain has resulted in the loss of trust in the human and governments. I am sharing this because it did not happen overnight. It took 12 years to develop this pattern. The truth is I will not trust a billionaire if he tells me to complete this job I will pay you $1000 when completed. I can not trust. I always thought would I be get paid for the two-week period I am working now. I mean think about the fact trust of one person on the second person is getting hurt so badly. All this is the result of the profit-only approach.
One of the few that are sounding the alarm. One question I have about UBI is how are people going to purchase homes and what's going to happen to property values since that's a big part of net worth for many.
When machines replaced unskilled workers it was ok. But when machines start replacing intellectuals Uuuuuuu that's scaryyyyyy…:D:D:D
Individuals are not concerned about the economy at large over their own interests, despite realizing the benefits abstractly. If demand, hence profit is reduced they will cling harder to robots to keep cost down, not hire expensive humans. Let someone else create consumers. A weaker economy will also allow any rival economy to take control. There is no free lunch, so where is the government going to find the rich consumer or wage earner to tax so to give everyone essentially welfare? Taxing 90% to support 10%, or losing 11% of your paycheck is a strain. The Great Depression showed us a 75% – 25% was like. Industrialist have gotten greedy by disconnecting wages and performance, and every time people get greedy there's catastrophe down the line. Automation also reduces skill needed. Why pay a skilled seamstress when you can put someone in a poor country who can't write their name in front of a sewing machine? Automation destroys the educational system because higher education becomes worthless, not to mention destroying funds to support it.
It's not your job that will be outsourced ย to a robot….it's you.
Use machines to produce the machines that fulfill every human need while perpetually conserving viable habitat for future generations. End bullshit jobs and nonsense goods. UBI only preserves wealth stratification, and therefore poverty. Change societal motivational ethic from competition for survival to self-education for betterment.
Solution is obvious, tax machines, not humans. Then jobs will be created for humans.