With recent innovations of automation we see some low skill jobs being cycled out slowly. Though automation also helps industry expand and create products at a far smaller cost to the business itself. With that in mind. Automation logically is good for the whole of society because not only does it allow mass production of products, but it makes products cheaper for consumers.
But there is an underlying issue. As automation increases, low skill labor decreases at least in theory. If it costs less to build a machine than hire an employee than the company will side with a machine. Fedex is already using machines to help cut costs. So as a country should we focus on altering our education structure to teach skills at an earlier age. I've seen some argue that children don't know what they want to do with their life so skill education would be a waste.
All in all with rambling aside. What should we do to solve the low skill labor.
My opinion: In high school from Freshman year start teaching students on what potential careers are in the market and from there have a class dedicated every year to career study and skill training. Whether it be online skill training or hands on depending on the schools funding and location allowance. Also as a country we need to start advocating that trade schools and non degree careers are actually viable because they are. This will help diversify the market and bring more people into trade skills which are starting to lack in our country. The argument that a degree is the only way to go is devaluing degrees and pushing the cost of colleges further and further. Which is hurting the not so well off on the economic spectrum. It's a tricky issue but just paying for everyone's college will make degrees pointless to an employer. If everyone has one how else will you stand out. Creating a gap in experience from that point. To get hired you will need job experience and then people will just be bidding over internships for hands on work experience while holding a piece of paper that should say they're experienced.
But what i'm trying to say, is Should we start focusing on job skills and if so, how.
(Sorry for rambling)
we already have something like that for folks who want to do it called trade school. I believe what really needs to be done is better education throughout the entire schooling process. If you go back an look at how much we have lowered the bar when it comes to education it would make you sick. I will never forget when my 10th grade teacher gave us 3 tests, 1 that was current, 1 from India I think an 1 from like 40 years ago. The class as a whole passed the current test easy while either failing or barely passing the other 2.
yes, but trade school happens post HS. i'm advocating for job skills training in High School
im under the impression that we're creating so many jobs that we dont have enough workers to fill them in many industries.
They used to do this... skills training. It was called Vo Tech... back in the day.
I feel they should bring it back in every school system in the USA, because not everyone is cut out to be an academic. Some people learn by doing, and there is simply a dearth of hands-on-training in the USA these days, along with what seems like a willful neglect to be truthful with some students, and simply let them know as early as possible that there are other paths to becoming educated. Not everyone can or will learn by sticking their heads in a book, or even by reading online.
We need people that are skilled workers, and those skills can be learned in many different ways if the people doing the guidance counseling have the information and best interest of the student and the nation at heart, and not just a PC agenda to push.
This is what I was going to post too. When I was in high school I attended a vocational-technical school. I took a electrical, welding, plumbing and networking class while I was attended. You were allowed to attend your junior and senior years.
I think this is indicative of a bigger problem we are seeing in every country. We are automating so much stuff. And not just mechanical automation - software automation. One of my clients bought me a t shirt that says “be nice, or I’ll replace you with 10 lines of code”. And in all seriousness, every job we ever do the ROI is “ you can lose x many head count”.
so many people complain “immigrants took our jobs” - no they didn’t - your industry either died or automated. The jobs immigrants are doing are not the ones you want.
think about how much worse this will get.
Any job that involves driving will be automated by self driving cars/trucks. 10 to 20 years at max.
most legal jobs can be performed by an app. Searching for legal precedent and having an encyclopaedic knowledge of cases is perfect for ai. Lawyers are ****ed.
Most medical jobs including surgery will soon be performed better by machines.
Already half the jobs people do are borderline pointless. We have way too many people and way to little actual necessary work. This is going to a huge problem and the rapid increase in income inequality we have seen in the last 25 years (neither US nor the Uk have a functioning middle class anymore) is just the beginning.
universal basic income studies are being run by governments all over for a reason - but they keep being shutdown by ignorant boomers who don’t understand that the world has changed since the could afford a house and 2 kids on a basic salary.
I wish I had done that, tbh. I was too cool for school, and that included vo tech. I joined the military after I barely graduated, and then paid to go to tech school 12 years later... I wasn't very smart then, and not much has changed, lol. I still have to call plumbers, electricians, and carpenters when I need anything major done.
The thing that really worked against me was that the guidance counseling was horrible. They just wanted to push college, and that was it. Three or four years after I graduated in 1982, the vo tech school was shuttered.
Now all they want to teach is IT, which is fine, but even that is becoming more and more automated, and fewer and fewer people are now needed with the advent of centralized computing (cloud... new name for an old idea).
Plumbing won't ever be automated, and water will always flow down hill. You sir, made the right choice.
Only thing I have to quibble with you about is the UBI. Sure it sounds great, but it won't work imho. I can think of a 100 dystopian scenarios that have been made into books or movies, and they all have painted an ugly picture of the world that could include a UBI... though I have no other better solution, my gut simply feels it can't and won't work.
Most people need real work, and not just for the money. We have to figure out something for people to do in the long run.
Heck it, just automate everything including farming and start up the Logans Run scenario. Care free life, no work to do, pursue whatever interests you, and then walk into a suicide booth when you reach a certain age.
Who's with me?
Totally agree with you. So much potential for it to go wrong. Also agree that humans need to work. It’s either that or fight really. It’s what we do. That’s why I think we need to start running tests on things like UBI or alternatives - be great for the future to be more like Star Trek than Judge Dredd.
in the west we seem to be pissing about blaming brown people for our problems and blindly swallowing literal Orwellian propaganda, so I hope to god the Chinese have a plan : )
did bank tellers lose their jobs to ATM machines in the 1980's? would you believe it if i told you ATM machines created more jobs?
this stuff is stupid complicated. context is very important. its dangerous to ignore the human element of automation. even self driving cars will still need a driver, but those clickbait articles dont talk about that.
Detroit is actually building a 200000sq ft facility right now to train people in labor jobs there is a lack of skill there is so many kids I try to train that have no physical skills in basic anything it's a good thing the construction industry is good I am never without work unless I want to be and we are only building more and more constant maintainance is needed these houses start to decay just shortly after they are built and commercial work requires alot of crew members unfortunately finding anybody from the city that doesn't want to text and smoke weed all day is hard to find. Most of the time they don't make it the second day
the problem is people want union wages which is fine on the commercial jobs where the state or company has huge money to spend you can pay 25 35 an hr but on a homeowners house even if the homeowner is a union employee it's a matter of a 7000 roof or a 25000 roof from a union company for the same quality who are they going to pick it's a hard balance one that I have done for over 25 years.
BTW I Find the term low skill offensive define skill lol just kidding I've heard that my whole life
Since power from companies was handed on a golden plate to the shareholders in the Carter and Reagan era the power of low skilled workers was reduced by eliminating the unions stripping workers of their rights and influence inside companies.
Fits the modern GOP, they are the enemy of the working class yet still a lot of them vote them in, Democrats aren't much better unfortunately but their modern progressive wing can be promising.
"Early roots of neoliberalism were laid in the 1970s during the
Carter administration, with deregulation of the
trucking, banking and
airline industries.
[92][93][94] This trend continued into the 1980s under the
Reagan administration, which included
tax cuts, increased defense spending, financial deregulation and
trade deficit expansion.
[95] Likewise, concepts of
supply-side economics, discussed by the Democrats in the 1970s, culminated in the 1980
Joint Economic Committee report "Plugging in the Supply Side". This was picked up and advanced by the Reagan administration, with Congress following Reagan's basic proposal and cutting federal income taxes across the board by 25% in 1981.
[96]"
"During the 1990s, the
Clinton administration also embraced neoliberalism
[85] by supporting the passage of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), continuing the deregulation of the financial sector through passage of the
Commodity Futures Modernization Act and the repeal of the
Glass–Steagall Act and implementing cuts to the
welfare state through passage of the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act.
[95][97][98]"So with all the power in shareholders hands, companies lost their long based economical view and went to go for short term profits where workers rights are just seen as a burden for the economy instead of a valuable asset.
The west is at the moment on a dead track regarding sustainable economics, yet politicians like AOC or Bernie are seen like the enemy, but they are the only ones addressing this point. In the EU neoliberalism is also a big problem and there is only one way to solve this, vote different.
To the above who said something along the lines of "The jobs immigrants are doing are not the ones you want."
You are correct and way off base at the same time. You're correct, predominantly they are doing jobs I wouldn't want to do for wages I wouldn't accept, but, in a free market system, that excess supply drives down wages. Remove illegal aliens and there is more demand than there is supply, driving wages up. I wouldn't shovel shit into the wind for $100 a day, but I would happily for a much higher wage.
You go on to promote 'Universal Basic Income', but I don't have the energy nor time to unpack that can of worms. Awful idea.
UBI will be needed as the dumbest 10% of the population wont be able to get a job in 2030.
Low skill labor is dying. and you simply cant teach someone with 80IQ to work in high skill fields.
Remember seasonal workers leave and go home or should but average pay in their countries is 10 dollars a day here in the us there probably getting 100 or more now you send that home you might be able to retire after a few years mean while let's see if they let an american retire in their country in the same low income areas..nope Americans have to retire in the rich areas typically so might as well not leave especially if your white
that's because Michigan has chased away skilled labor through high cost of living and lower wages in comparison to the rest of the country. seriously. combine that with dwindling civil services across the board and the entire state is getting worse. odds are most of those people who are getting trained will leave with that skill to live a better life elsewhere.
unions have overplayed their hands for too long. now that we are competing on a world stage those extortionate costs for easily learned skills is a liability. no one is killing the unions, they are killing themselves. sad part is if they'd just negotiate for a bit less they'd benefit more overall by expanding their paying employee base making the idea of secured jobs more viable. Michigan didn't go right to work because it was popular. with the need to infrastructure it was necessary to get things done at a reasonable cost.
Hear, Hear, Tolshortte.
Labor Unions in the U.S. have slit their own throat by not meeting the company in the middle. Like it or not, unless you want to be a corporate slave, the future is in small business.