It’s Man vs. Machine and Man Is Losing
6th October 2011
Since the recession ended, businesses had increased their real spending on equipment and software by a strong 26%, while they have added almost nothing to their payrolls.
Employment appears to be making a transition such as transportation made when we went from horses to cars. Buying a new machine means that you, well, buy a new machine. Hiring a new employee means sticking your foot into a tarpit of actual and potential legal and financial liabilities that many companies are looking at and saying, ‘Nope, don’t wanna go there.’
Maybe things would be different if machines could vote….
October 6th, 2011 at 09:36
Yup, automation is a great thing…until you lose your job because of it…
October 6th, 2011 at 11:06
The talented don’t have to worry about it.
October 6th, 2011 at 11:10
It has nothing to do with automation, Dennis. It has to do with investment. A copier doesn’t come with a set of government regulations and legal obligations. The way things work now, the company may add equipment as they need it, but the absolute last thing that they will increase is head count. The only new positions added where I work were hired to help deal directly with increased government regulations, and they are all contractors. If an employee leaves, it takes 6 months of paperwork and evaluations to get permission to replace him.
October 6th, 2011 at 15:49
I guess it sucks to be you, Rick.
“The talented don’t have to worry about it”? Perhaps. But there are more and more people–the population keeps growing–and fewer and fewer jobs (thanks to automation). Eventually there won’t be enough jobs even for all the “talented”; then I suppose you could change your refrain to be, “The really, really talented don’t have to worry about it; the rest of the talented are up shit creek along with the untalented.”
Euthenasia. It’s the only answer.
October 6th, 2011 at 20:59
We can start with the Left, Dennis. They’re already brain-dead.
October 7th, 2011 at 09:43
Naw; some of them are really, really talented: I submit George Souros, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates.
I suggest we start at the bottom with Joe the Plumber and others of his ilk.
October 7th, 2011 at 21:35
George Soros? Talented?!?