Thought on technology replacing jobs

[Goldy1]

I have commented on how the grocery stores around here will have 5 self check out lanes open(not under 12 items wuick check out, but no limit full length conveyer belt adn you scan, bag, and scan your own coupons) AND 3 ACTUAL CASHIERS OPEN.

Me and dh drove by a blockbuster that closed. WE have noticed these small dvd rental units on the outside of stores and in them. you put in a credit card and return the movie to the machine next day.(and I do netflix, love it too)

I have a baby due. I joked I will say to my son "yea honey back in the day there used to be video stores you walked around at. etc etc" lol

[NeedaDollar]

My local markets recently started doing the self check registers. I only use them when I have less than 10 items and would move faster if I did it myself. I too use netflix and love it. I haven't been inside of a movie store in a long time. I remember the days when you had to go to these stores to rent movies because pay-per-view didn't exist and ofcourse netflix didn't either.

Remember the days when it took up to a year for a movie to go from theatrical to VHS? Now it takes as little as 3 months for a movie to go from theatrical to DVD. Unless someone goes online and downloads it before or as soon as it comes out in theaters.

[disneysteve]

Technology has been replacing jobs for hundreds of years. The wheel eliminated the need for people to physically haul stuff on their backs. Cars elminated all the people needed to handle horses and build carriages and maintain trolleys. Self-serve supermarkets eliminated having a guy behind a counter collect all the items you wanted and hand them to you. Changes in fashion have almost completely eliminated hat shops to produce, sell and maintain hats.

At the same time, though, new industries arise bringing with them new jobs. When horse-drawn carriages were replaced by cars, we needed people to build and maintain the cars, insure the cars, inspect the cars, man the gas pumps, pave the roads, etc.

So technology doesn't replace people. It just moves them around and changes the nature of their work.

None of the grocery stores in this area have self-checkout but Wal-Mart and Home Depot do. Given the choice, I use self-checkout whenever possible. It is far faster to do it myself than to have another person do it. If my supermarket installs it, I'll use it there, too.

[jIM_Ohio]

Technology does not replace jobs, it transfers them. Someone had to design the scanner and the overall store layout to install those machines for the self check.

Someone had to design the machines to put the dvds in.

The jobs of the clerks were transferred to something which actually paid more.

That is capitalism. If you don't like it move to cuba.

[GREENBACK]

The automotive industry has dealt with this (robotics) for years. The world changes. In my fathers day, you joined the military and did your time and got a manufacturing job or some similar scenario. Those times are quickly passing us by, if they aren't already gone.

I'm not the greatest with handling the new tech. but I know it must be dealt with. I remember teaching my mom and dad to use a microwave and a vcr when they came out.

How far have we come from that?

[Goldy1]

I am all for self check out to save time as well. However, scanning and bagging $150 of groceries myself after a 8 hour shift has ticked me off a couple times. It's not the same as running in and self serving a few items.

Good point about transferring the jobs. However, one could rely on taking a "stop gap" job or what not if needed in retail, but not if all these lay offs continue. I have myself never worked in retail.
Also not everyone is meant to be an engineer or teacher or paramedic etc. They need jobs.

[jIM_Ohio]

Originally Posted by GREENBACK

The automotive industry has dealt with this (robotics) for years. The world changes. In my fathers day, you joined the military and did your time and got a manufacturing job or some similar scenario. Those times are quickly passing us by, if they aren't already gone.

I'm not the greatest with handling the new tech. but I know it must be dealt with. I remember teaching my mom and dad to use a microwave and a vcr when they came out.

How far have we come from that?

My theory on this is the tax code prevents people from wanting the low tech jobs more than technology makes it obsolete.

If someone had two choices:
work a manufacturing job for $12-$18/hour (24-36k per year) or work less hours at a lower paying job to have the tax code kick in EIC and other credits which require no work (and the more you work, the more you lose the benefit)... which one will most people take?

The one with less work. The overall pay in both cases becomes the same thing, the tax code took away their incentive to work (IMO).

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Goldy1

Also not everyone is meant to be an engineer or teacher or paramedic etc. They need jobs.

Have you seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Johnny Depp movie)? Charlie's father loses his job at the toothpaste factory putting caps on the tubes when they install a machine to do the work. Then he gets rehired at much higher pay to be the guy who fixes the machine that replaced him.

Manual and menial labor jobs will never go away. They will just change and evolve to fit the times. Sure, not everyone is cut out to be a computer programmer or neurosurgeon, but every machine needs someone to build it, transport it, install it, maintain it, etc. I'd be curious to know but I'm willing to bet that when a store replaces a live cashier with a self-checkout lane, there is no net loss of jobs in the economy. There may not even be a loss of jobs in that store as the displaced cashier might be reassigned to other duties.

[snafu]

Great, fast read "Who Moved My Cheese," [Spencer Johnson] likely available at your library. Explains how fast society is changing and what will happen if you don't adjust!

[Goldy1]

Yes I enjoyed Who Moved my Cheese. What is the EIC (assuming you mean earned income credit)
Are you stating one may chose to work for $12 an hour in lieu of $20 b/c they make the same amount due to taxes or something?

[EEinNJ]

I design and program automated manufacturing equipment, mostly for pharma and related. The biggest reason for automation I have seen is people cannot do high volume manufacturing as quickly and accurately as machinery. Instead the operators tend the machines and do paperwork. Where a process is too labor intensive or it doesn't pay to automate, it goes off-shore or done in Mexico or other low-wage area. Unfortunately the US has let manufacturing slip away, sold out by short-sighted corporations and poor trade policies. Service jobs do not create wealth, do not create a product which can be exported (unless you count a call center in Bangalore) and do not pay as well.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by EEinNJ

The biggest reason for automation I have seen is people cannot do high volume manufacturing as quickly and accurately as machinery. Instead the operators tend the machines and do paperwork.

We love to watch the show How It's Made on cable, and other shows like it. I've commented a few times, though, that it seems that virtually everything is made with computer-programmed and automated machinery. I'd love to see a show that depicts how all of those items were made before all of the automation technology came along. I think that would be even more interesting to watch. Most of the things they are showing are products that have been around for a long time and must have been made by hand before the automated techniques came along.

[Goldy1]

On the other hand, I am afraid to know how some things work ie factory farming is deporable and not exactly old mc donald had a farm but I am digressing a bit much here

I like How IT Is Made as well. I saw the one for example on how they made some kind of cereal and it was interesting. Oh yes, Grape Nuts.

[red92s]

DVD vending, self-checkout, and airline kiosks isnt " technology replacing jobs" it's outsourcing

The company simply found unskilled labor (you) willing and able to do repetitive, uncomplicated tasks for less (free, in this case) than their current employees.

[red92s]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

We love to watch the show How It's Made on cable, and other shows like it. I've commented a few times, though, that it seems that virtually everything is made with computer-programmed and automated machinery. I'd love to see a show that depicts how all of those items were made before all of the automation technology came along. I think that would be even more interesting to watch. Most of the things they are showing are products that have been around for a long time and must have been made by hand before the automated techniques came along.

Being a manufacturing engineer . . . I happen to like seeing the high-speed automated machinery

[Phenomenal Woman]

There is greater output when we use automation or advance technology.

The concerns I have is that so many jobs and support services involved with automations and technical advancement are off-shored to countries that will do it for less.

I think another reason positions are being off-shored is that if a company makes profit outside the US and do not bring that profit back into the US, they do not have to pay as much taxes on it. While it might be in the best interest of the company, it is making me wonder what the domestic job prospects are going to be like in the future.

[snafu]

Not everyone has the marks/money for university or technical school. Besides construction, where will the auto industry's type $38. per hr jobs come from for those who drop out of high school?

I'm trying to imagine what's happening to people who work in sales or on commission only. The news report today is about a husband who has killed his wife, children and self apparently due to job loss. Imagine the pain

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Phenomenal Woman

so many jobs and support services involved with automations and technical advancement are off-shored to countries that will do it for less.

it is making me wonder what the domestic job prospects are going to be like in the future.

As I said earlier, technology has been replacing certain jobs forever. There will always be jobs. They will just be new and different jobs. Many common jobs today didn't even exist 20 or 30 years ago. And 20 years from now, there will be jobs that don't yet exist now.

[wincrasher]

Don't know if the self checkout is a "false economy" or not. The machines cost alot, they still have to have someone watch it, and you get ticked off customers (me). But I'm a grumpy old man, so go figure.

I heard a guy on CNBC the other day talking about how efficient the free market is. Manufacturing jobs get outsourced overseas because it is the lowest margin part of a product's chain. All the big profit margins are in distributing, advertising and retailing -essentially the services end.

It makes sense, but doesn't seem right somehow - surely an economy needs people who make things and actually have talents/skills in building, manufacturing and creating things.

[GREENBACK]

I wonder if the self checkout option isn't a pre-cursor to the entire checkout process being conducted this way. I'm sure they are looking at the efficiency and cost savings as well as customer satisfaction of this. Will there be a day when only a few cashiers monitor several self check stations and that's it?