visit some mining towns

Every time I visit my family 🙂

You make good points of course that I should have acknowledged. But what’s the alternative? Paying people to do menial jobs that they don’t really need to be doing?

There wasn’t much sympathy on here for tube drivers was there?

The point of jobs is to get things done, not to give people work. And the point of paying wages is to get people to do things you want them to do. Basically the only issue here is that we’re breaking one half of the equation while pretending that the other half still functions- simultaneously working to reduce the requirement for human labour, and demanding that everyone works for a living.

brooess – Member
At a macro level, jobs will be destroyed and jobs will be created but not at the same time necessarily or requiring your skills.

It’s also important to consider where the jobs are.

molgrips – Member
But what’s the alternative? Paying people to do menial jobs that they don’t really need to be doing?

Well, your question is based on the assumption that those replacing jobs are doing because they have no choice. The decision to place people with machines/robots is usually done on a perception of cutting costs, and the motivation for that too often is driving up profits. What about paying people to do their jobs and not thinking about the shareholders all the time? Also, one person’s menial job is another person’s greatest achievement, or the only way to support their kids.

There wasn’t much sympathy on here for tube drivers was there?

I’m not sure of the point here. Some people on here didn’t show sympathy for tube drivers, but then some did.

But what’s the alternative? Paying people to do menial jobs that they don’t really need to be doing?

The issue is whether automation creates enough new jobs so as to not increase inequality levels and reduce peoples ability to spend. Yes, goods can potentially be made cheaper, but that doesn’t mean to say that will be passed on to the consumer, it could be that companies just increase their profit margins by selling at the same price to those still in work.

Neither will automation of menial jobs have an effect on housing prices, perhaps even rental prices. London rental prices could actually sky rocket even further as the capital wouldn’t need low skilled workers to live there.

Automation can throw up all sorts of imbalances, personally I highly doubt that robotic automation will be comparable to anything in human history in terms of it’s rate of expansion and it’s effect on society.

Surely we can’t all make a living from selling each other cups of coffee?

You think it will just be Baristas?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzGzf0S0WqI[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIktqjfsB_0[/video]