Nonsense.   Robotics destroyed my home town and destroyed the families and
the culture in the hometown.   It destroyed the culture of the Arts in
America while making capitalists rich.   There is a 98 % decline in jobs in
the Arts business.     I make less than half what I paid my teachers in
1970 dollars and I'm at the top of my profession.    Productivity is a
mirage for people to hide behind while they steal the competent blind.
They are doing it now to the teachers in the schools and returning teaching
to the ghetto it was on the Quapaw reservation before my father changed it.
I don't know where you get this stuff Tom.     I've lived through it several
times and the NYTimes is correct. 

 

REH

 

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tom Walker
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 12:19 PM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] NYTimes.com: Skilled Work, Without the Worker

 



Dean Baker's response to that article is excellent:


Robots Don't Cost Jobs, Bad Economic Policy Does

 
<http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robots-dont-cost-jobs-ba
d-economic-policy-does/print> Print

 


Sunday, 19 August 2012 06:55 


 
<http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=120&winname=addthis&pub=unknown&sourc
e=men-120&lng=en&s=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cepr.net%2Findex.php%2Fblogs%2Fbeat
-the-press%2Frobots-dont-cost-jobs-bad-economic-policy-does&title=Robots%20D
ont%20Cost%20Jobs%2C%20Bad%20Economic%20Policy%20Does&logo=&logobg=&logocolo
r=&ate=AT-unknown/-/-/503111782124e927/1&frommenu=1&cr=0&uid=50311178e577ed9
4&ct=1&pre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2Freader%2Fview%2F%3Ftab%3Dmy&tt=0>
AddThis

The NYT had an interesting piece
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/business/new-wave-of-adept-robots-is-chan
ging-global-industry.html?ref=business>  on how a new generation of robots
is able to do far more sophisticated tasks in factories and warehouses than
earlier generations of robots. The piece repeatedly warns that this new
technology could cost large numbers of jobs.

While one outcome of the introduction of this new technology could be the
loss of jobs in the economy, that would be due to inept economic policy.
What the article is describing is productivity growth. This is exactly what
we should want. It allows us to be richer if we work the same number of
hours or to be as rich and work fewer hours. We had very rapid productivity
growth in the three decades following World War II. It did not lead to
unemployment, but rather to rapidly rising living standards for the bulk of
the population.

In the last three decades the government has pursued policies that have the
effect of redistributing income upward so that the gains from growth are not
broadly shared. These policies include a high dollar policy that makes U.S.
manufacturing goods less competitive domestically and internationally, a
policy of selective protectionism that largely protects the most highly
educated professionals (e.g. doctors and lawyers) from foreign competition,
and a policy of shifting tens of billions of dollars each year to Wall
Street banks through "too big to fail" insurance provided at zero cost by
the government.

If this new generation of robots ends up making large segments of the
population worse off, it will be the result of deliberate policies. It is
not the fault of the robots.  

 

On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 7:54 AM, Keith Hudson <[email protected]>
wrote:

Thanks, Sally. As comprehensive an article on robotics as any I've read.

Keith



At 12:33 19/08/2012, you wrote:

 
 <http://www.nytimes.com/>   

 <http://www.nytimes.com/> This page was sent to you by: [email protected]


  

 <http://www.nytimes.com/> Skilled Work, Without the Worker 

 <http://www.nytimes.com/> 

 
 
Advertisement 

 <http://www.nytimes.com/> 
RUBY SPARKS
>From the directors of 'Little
Miss Sunshine', starring Paul Dano,
Zoe Kazan, & Annette Bening.
Watch the Trailer

Click here to watch the trailer

 <http://www.nytimes.com/>  




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-- 
Cheers,

Tom Walker (Sandwichman)

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