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marmar

(77,077 posts) Tue Dec 15, 2015, 05:31 PM Dec 2015

Prof. Richard Wolff on The David Pakman Show: "Will Automation End "Full Employment?"

by Richard Wolff.
PUBLISHED ON DECEMBER 13, 2015

Professor Wolff joins David Pakman to discuss the the future of employment in the context of automation and technological unemployment.

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Prof. Richard Wolff on The David Pakman Show: "Will Automation End "Full Employment?" (Original Post) marmar Dec 2015 OP

I toured Hershey's plant in Pennsylvania years ago. They said Hershey's kisses are manufactured tclambert Dec 2015 #1

Automation will end full employment and few govts. will provide for citizens as appalachiablue Dec 2015 #2

One needs to look at the big picture to understand the direction of the economy. AdHocSolver Dec 2015 #3

tclambert

(11,085 posts)

1. I toured Hershey's plant in Pennsylvania years ago. They said Hershey's kisses are manufactured

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Tue Dec 15, 2015, 09:53 PM

Dec 2015

without ever being touched by human hands. Seems like we're getting close to that with automobiles. All the local big box stores have more self serve checkout lanes open than ones with human cashiers. IBM's Watson, the Jeopardy champion, now does medical diagnosis.

So I'm going with "Yes, automation will end full employment. It may have already done so and we just didn't notice."

appalachiablue

(41,131 posts)

2. Automation will end full employment and few govts. will provide for citizens as

Reply to tclambert (Reply #1)

Tue Dec 15, 2015, 10:55 PM

Dec 2015

Finland and Switzerland are considering IMO. The transition is here and now. The resulting loss of income and security is an existential crisis too immense to ponder right now, and there appear to be no real authorities dealing with the crushing societal disruption.

AdHocSolver

(2,561 posts)

3. One needs to look at the big picture to understand the direction of the economy.

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Dec 16, 2015, 02:55 AM

Dec 2015

What is being done is plain to see.

Human labor is massively being replaced with computers, robots, and "self-service".

Products are designed to be thrown away and replaced by a new gadget, or to diagnose themselves and tell the user how to repair them.

People are being replaced by robots in manufacturing, housework, medical diagnosis, cars that drive themselves, and on and on.

The goal seems to be to replace humans permanently as employees with computers and robots which are totally designed by the wealthy to serve at the pleasure of their corporate masters.

A large part of the working and middle classes are becoming an extraneous and useless underclass (hence, unemployable).

The masses are embracing the new technological gimmickry because they fail to see what is in store for them.

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