economic tsunami

[HONDO74]

The 40 hour 5 day work week needs to be revised to 4 days and 32 hours or maybe 36 hours? There just isn't enough "manual" labor to support the population we have without having a lot of people sitting around not doing anything. If this isn't addressed in a reasonable fashion you will see society further break down into have's and have not's and all that could portend. When you mix in a population that's armed to the teeth and pissed off about this it could get very ugly very fast.

That is actually kind of funny. I remember quite well back in Sept 2011 the big protest movement called Occupy Wall Street. The main issues raised by Occupy Wall Street were social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the perceived undue influence of corporations on government, particularly from the financial services sector. The OWS slogan, "We are the 99%", refers to income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population.

What did they accomplish. Absolutely nothing. And it was not the "population that's armed to the teeth" that participated in this big circle jerk. It was the progressive liberals, the unions and the democrats. Kind of funny that during the election it was Wall Street and the big 1% liberal democrats that contributed the most to Hillary Clinton.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I am a retired teacher and have always considered our family to be upper lower class.

I've never heard of upper lower class. ....

In undergraduate Economics classes, I learned that each Class/Economic Strata, Upper, Middle, and Lower, is further divided among Lower, Middle, and Upper segments, determined by income. Thus, Roger would be correct:
+Upper Lower
+Middle Lower
+Lower Lower

Of course, therefore, that would further be expressed as:
+Upper Upper
+Middle Upper
+Lower Upper
...and...

+Upper Middle
+Middle Middle
+Lower Middle Class

[chuck]

And it was not the "population that's armed to the teeth" that participated in this big circle jerk.

The people that participated weren't the ones that have the weapons or the anger to back up use of the same. The "protestors" were already near/at the bottom. They didn't have much to loose because they never had much to begin with. The groups that have the weapons are only now being squeezed out. The real (and accelerating) squeeze is on the middle class which may disappear with most of the folks being pushed down and out and a very few moving up.

[Mitch]

This conversation started out about the impact that robotics will have on human employment, and so, to get back to that, I will offer a few musings.
Rather than spend untold thousands on a college education that may only qualify someone for the "services" field, what happens if there are no openings in your field? How are you gonna pay back those huge loans working for a company making widgets? I would submit that if you're gonna spend money on education, make it in the "trade services".
A robot will never build, wire, or plumb a new home or skyscraper. A robot will build a car, but it won't get in there and diagnose and repair broken parts. In manufacturing, robots can weld new product together, but when the product goes afield and breaks, it's gonna take a skilled human to make the repair. A robot will probably not string wire and fiber optic cables so business's can communicate between city locations. Robots won't load or unload ships in port, and they won't be piloting the thousands of commercial airliners; at least not for quite a while. There's lots of other careers that I didn't touch on, but you can get my drift. Why make minimum wage packaging and shipping the products that robots have made, if you have an opportunity to make real money in the trade services field?

[up148]

There are two important facts I think you left out Hondo. Birth rate and government assistance. Poor people have a higher birth rate than wealthy people, so they will not die off due to "Natural Selection", unless there is some calamity in the world, IMHO. Or, we have a "French Revolution"
in this country.

Also, modern society is set up to assist those who need it (although too much for some and not enough for others), so that assistance needs to be factored in too. If the government fails, then we all lose.

The tax system seems to be set up to punish those trying to get ahead and move up in class. The middle and upper middle class are being held back every bit as much as the lower classes. It takes a lot of money to become truly financially comfortable today and even if you have a lot of money in savings and investments, they can be gone in the blink of an eye. But, the really rich are above this problem.

Anyone with billions of dollars can afford to donate, be taxed, ????, many, many millions of dollars per year more than they are paying now, without even feeling it. Whereas, even those making several hundred thousand up to $500K per year, are losing a much higher percentage of their income/wealth each year, than those who already have $10M, 15M, 25M in the bank.

It's a lifelong struggle to be financially comfortable.

Just an observation and subject to change.

BH

[up148]

That is a truly remarkable video Mitch and just as scary as it is amazing. The cost to build a facility like that must be staggering, but also must be very profitable in the end. The hardest part of running any company is the employees and this eliminates the majority of that problem. And the way the government continually stacks the rules in the employees favor, I can see the advantage of robots.

No call in sick days.
No maternity leave for wife and husband (some paid) that can be more than a month.
No employee squabbles about who's being paid what or that their job is easier.
No sexual harrasment (real or designed)
No hostile workplace charges (real or designed)
No strikes
No bad apples

And the list goes on and on. Employees are a real hassle in small businesses who try to do the right thing. And I can tell you todays employees expect more and appreciate less, than in past decades. The work ethic as changed in America.

Opinion.

BH

[Rufus T. Firefly]

It's a lifelong struggle to be financially comfortable.

Yes.

[chuck]

A robot will never build, wire, or plumb a new home

Skyscraper, not for a while. Homes, already being done in higher end prefab units that are built and partially assembled in controlled environments, aka a warehouse. The sub assemblies are assembled into "modules" that can be shipped to the site and assembled much like a giant Lego set. The Navy is building ships this way and the car companies have been doing this for years.

The entire issue of not having trained people to fix anything is very legitimate and I'm not sure what can be done about it. Too often there aren't parts or worse, the thing wasn't designed to be repaired, i.e. the assembly process created a locked box. Many students that have paid for the higher end tech training are in the same boat as their white collar contemporaries. The training is so specific that they can't find a job or no one wants to pay them for their skills (I can figure it out watching YouTube).

[HONDO74]

There are two important facts I think you left out Hondo. Birth rate and government assistance. Poor people have a higher birth rate than wealthy people, so they will not die off due to "Natural Selection", unless there is some calamity in the world, IMHO. Or, we have a "French Revolution"
in this country.
BH

up148
I didn't succeed but I was actually trying to relate "Natural Selection" to the business world that seems to be changing faster than many are able to adapt to. Not just individuals.

It wasn't that long ago that the automobile replaced the horse as basic transportation and the airplane replaced the train.

Look at how many things we had in the past that have been replaced by the latest and greatest only to be replaced by something else. It is all moving at a very fast pace.

And now

[up148]

Sorry, I went out of context. It is very scary and again I say, we were all lucky to be born when we were. I don't think I will care much for the future.

BH

[robert.]

In a few years robots will but prostitutes out of work

[rogruth]

In a few years robots will but prostitutes out of work

Depends on your definition of each.

[HONDO74]

In a few years robots will but prostitutes out of work

The new Stepford wives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuAADocdVn0

[chuck]

I don't think I will care much for the future.

This is from the Firesign Theater "I Think We're all Bozo's on this Bus" from the early 1970's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAQCuLl2I8M

"The Future Fair, a fair for all and no fare/fair to anyone"

[robert.]

I did some work on the stepford wives