Krugman: Rise of robots and the reshoring” of manufacturing to the United States

[quaker bill]

4. The graph is the take home message

Labor gets a smaller and smaller slice of the economy over time. Sure, engineers and designers get good work designing the factory once. But very few get jobs manufacturing things when they are done.

Our robots are cheaper and more efficient than overseas slave labor over their lifecycle. If you have the millions needed to own robots, they will make you even richer. If you don't, they do the work you might have done, don't form unions, and never need a coffee break or paid holiday.

We will need to reimagine the entire social structure once this takes off. It will change the meaning of a job and promote greater levels of income disparity than anything seen to date. Some few of us will design and maintain the robots, others will serve them sandwiches.