On Gwe, 2003-07-25 at 18:10, Norman Bollinger wrote: > But I have always wondered why the 3rd world doesn't get lost in the > shuffle because more and more most stuff is made by robots - not all that > hand labor they used to be able to supply at a super low price. > Then it doesn't much matter which country it is made in - the robots can > work anywhere. Its the cost of energy and what is the shipping costs of > the raw material and the end product that start to factor in more.
For a lot of jobs people are an awful lot better than robots. I'm seeing a shortage of programming robots for example. Software is bound to go this way - its like farming - labour intensive, more skilled than people think. Unlike farming its really hard to sneak huge tariffs on and its very very cheap to transport products. There are also a lot more young people in countries like Brazil, and a much more "go do it" attitude as opposes to "go sue it".
