On November 11, 2016, Patrick Caughill writes on Futurism:
IN BRIEF
- Not only will 75% of jobs go to automation, the developing world may also see swaths of companies leaving their shores and returning to developed nations, as labor will be less of a factor for industry.
- Plans, such as a universal basic income, need to be initiated before this process proliferates and these regions are plunged into even more dire circumstances.
LABOR-COST ADVANTAGE?
From recent reports, it may seem like automation only affects those in developed countries; however, a report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development recently noted the ways in which automation impacts those in developing countries—and it seems that it impacts these nations even more than the industrialized world.
The report explains, “The increased use of robots in developed countries risks eroding the traditional labor-cost advantage of developing countries.” It cites another report from the World Bank that states, “The share of occupations that could experience significant automation is actually higher in developing countries than in more advanced ones, where many of these jobs have already disappeared.”
In short, this means that low-skill jobs in developing countries are more vulnerable, as these jobs could rather easily be done by robots, robots which would replace human low-skill labor in these countries. This translates to some staggering numbers: Two-thirds of all jobs in developing countries might be lost to automation.
The report continues by stating that automation could cause economic activity, like the manufacturing industry, to be reshored to developed countries from developing ones. If you aren’t familiar with this term, “reshoring” is the act of bringing back domestic manufacturing to a country. It is already happening today, but according to the report, it’s happening at a slow pace.
In the future, as automation continues to scale in the developing world, this rate will likely change dramatically.
MAINTAINING HUMAN JOBS
This, of course, brings up a host of issues. How do we alleviate the impact that the robots/automation have on the developing world? How do we protect human workers and our economy from automation?
According to the report, “outcomes will be shaped by policies.” In other words, nations need to start planning for the inevitability of automation and job loss now. To that end, the report advises countries to embrace the “digital revolution” through the changing of educational policies combined with “supportive macroeconomic, industrial and social policies.” Thus, we need to incorporate computers more fully into our education system and change, from the ground up, how our society functions.
This, of course, will be no small task.
One social solution that could be introduced is Universal Basic Income—a guaranteed income that is given to all individuals regardless of employment status or economic situation. It is a system that is already being debated, as a host of experts in various industries are pushing for it. In fact, it is already being tested in Finland and other nations. Thus, in the near future, we can analyze its results and, if positive, rework our economic and social structures to accommodate it.
“Disruptive technologies always bring a mix of benefits and risks,” the report says. We should always weigh the risks these technologies bring while, at the same time, exploring new ways to better our society (and transforms our society) with them.
https://futurism.com/un-report-robots-will-replace-two-thirds-of-all-workers-in-the-developing-world/
Gary Reber Comments:
This is another MUST READ article that looks at a future where there will be hordes of citizens of zero economic value. That is, unless the system can be reformed to empower EVERY citizen to acquire ownership in the wealth-creating, income-producing capital assets resulting from technological invention and innovation.
Because productive capital is increasingly the source of the world’s economic growth it should become the source of added property ownership incomes for all. The reality is if both labor and capital are independent factors of production, and if capital’s proportionate contributions are increasing relative to that of labor, then equality of opportunity and economic justice demands that the right to property (and access to the means of acquiring and possessing property) must in justice be extended to all.
As this article is testament to, with increasing punditry, scholars and others are writing about the impact of the Second Industrial Revolution where tectonic shifts in the technologies of production are destroying and degrading jobs due to the shift from labor worker input to the non-human factor––human-intelligent machines, superautomation, robotics, digital computer operations, etc.
The question that requires an answer is now timely before us. It was first posed by binary economist Louis Kelso in the 1950s but has never been thoroughly discussed on the national stage. Nor has there been the proper education of our citizenry that addresses what economic justice is and what ownership is. Therefore, by ignoring such issues of economic justice and ownership, our leaders are ignoring the concentration of power through ownership of productive capital, with the result of denying the 99 percenters equal opportunity to become capital owners. The question, as posed by Kelso is: “how are all individuals to be adequately productive when a tiny minority (capital workers) produce a major share and the vast majority (labor workers), a minor share of total goods and service,” and thus, “how do we get from a world in which the most productive factor—physical capital—is owned by a handful of people, to a world where the same factor is owned by a majority—and ultimately 100 percent—of the consumers, while respecting all the constitutional rights of present capital owners?”
Yet politicians and conventional economists would rather continue to focus on Job Creation that holds back technological invention and innovation, instead of a focus on enacting economic policies that focus on wealth-creating, income-producing capital Ownership Creation.
Given that there is no question that robotic technology will continue to expand the productivity and in large measure destroy jobs and devalue the value of human labor, the question that SHOULD be urgently addressed is WHO SHOULD OWN THE FUTURE TECHNOLOGY ECONOMY? Will ownership continue to concentrate among the 1 percent wealthy ownership class who now OWNS America, or will we reform the system to provide equal opportunity for EVERY child, woman, and man to acquire personal ownership in FUTURE non-human capital assets paid for with the FUTURE earnings of the investments in our technological future?
For solutions achieve Monetary Justice at http://capitalhomestead.org/page/monetary-justice. Support the Capital Homestead Act (aka Economic Democracy Act) at http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/, http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-a-plan-for-getting-ownership-income-and-power-to-every-citizen/, http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-summary/ and http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/ch-vehicles/.
