i just plain disagree for a WIDE variety of reasons. the most simple being:

1. tech jobs will help young people in the short and long run, but not older especially middle aged people in the short-middle-long run.

2. automation in tech itself is mitigating those gains

3. jobs have never been simplified and replaced on this scale, ever. it's not even comparable to something like the cotton gin. those job losses were replaced with directly applicable employment due to the burgeoning industrial revolution.

4. simple scale. i don't think you understand the scale i'm speaking of. in the course of 20 years many millions of low-skill labor people will lose their jobs. i'm not exaggerating. and they'll have no companies to demand their labor. they can go to school but they'll be competing with the next generation for every job they go on to be qualified for.


i know it's hard for someone like you to grasp, but we as a country have millions and millions of jobs that require almost no actual collegiate level skills. and we're going to eliminate almost all of them in the next 50 years while at the same time reducing the number of tech jobs in many sectors as well. in 50 years they wont even need cnc operators in many applications, it will be fully automated. and when that happens they'll come for your money or the corporation will have to pay a massive automation tax. it's the intermediate stage where starvation, suicide, and suffering that i'm worried about. i'd personally be surprised if unemployment numbers ever trend down again, ever. no im not kidding.



yup just got done with a truck loading conveyor that put 50 people out of work for an online retailer. the next step is to eliminate the person running the loader, which we did for a rat poison company last year.

i really just don't think you understand the rate of increase in the tech in automation. its happening exponentially.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Jun 16 2017 09:01am

Yeah dude I'm too rich and educated to understand the concept of unskilled labor. My 8 years working at a mom and pop carry out restaurant, 2 years in retail, and growing up in a city with 1 traffic light really spoiled me.

As a whole I don't think you're wrong. Automation on a huge scale is the future. I don't think it'll be in 20 years even if Musk and Cuban do. I just think other unskilled labor positions will open up or adapt. As the world continues to globalize we'll have unskilled people who can serve international communities, which is an exploding market in the future that will need humans, etc.

This post was edited by AspenSniper on Jun 16 2017 09:06am

Even skilled labour is starting to disappear.

I like your optimism on this part but I'd prefer if we as a society would be prepared for something like this happening.

lol it wasn't a dig. i meant your perspective given where you are may be goofing with your ability to understand the scale at play. that and i dont think you have any background in assembly/fabrication, could be wrong, and don't know the pace that automation is moving at in these industries. perhaps you are also not taking into account the cumulative effect that displaced workers will have on all industries. or the cumulative effect on things like community property values when entire regions lose their jobs.




no one realizes their on an exponential growth until you're vertical my man.



service of the global economy is a good mitigation to the problem, but it will be VERY optimistic to expect that to trend positively as people's communities fall apart. Proof: the 2016 election and general fight against globalism.

urban and localized agricultural initiatives would be a better mitigation IMO.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Jun 16 2017 09:11am

Population growth percentages have fallen from 2% in baby boomer era to under .7% today. There will be less people who need jobs. Maybe we'll actually get strict on immigration to prevent the growth rate from rising even more as a means to save ourselves from 20% unemployment. Thoughts on that? Honesty curious because I think you define yourself as a pretty pro-immigration dude.

i'd cast a wide net. foreign aid to improve conditions where they are, foreign aid to improve conditions in countries they travel through (read:Mexico), southern border wall in Mexico, cutdown on cash employment in the US, possibly look at sending cash back home via Western Union without verified legal employment. etc

i wouldnt sick ICE on them or mass deport. i wouldnt pour a concrete wall. i'd legalize pot and cut a leg off the cartels. crack down on opiods which fuel coyotes to allow them to traffic. i could speak on that all day, but alas, i have jobs to replace!

This post was edited by thesnipa on Jun 16 2017 09:18am

on a side note: Amazon just bought Whole foods. let the implications of that sink in if u assume the worst.

Yeah man Amazon only staffs 340,000 people. It's really killing the city of Seattle man I wish they had jobs.

And there are currently 2.7 million people employed by grocery stores. and an additional many million people employed in the shipping industries to bring groceries to a store near you. even small towns have a good sized store, most medium sized towns have multiples.

UPS will get a nice boost though if it follows through that's for sure.

UPS, USPS, FedEx, Amazon Service Centers, multiple warehouses, etc. Do they not staff employees? You'll still need employees. Though I will say, Amazon is masterful at automation.