When Machines Do Your Job

[FreeJoe]

3. Absolutely

I've been in IT, mostly programming, for my entire career. A large percentage of my projects get funded by the reduction in labor costs that will result fromt he project.

Hasn't it always been this way? Haven't the buggie makers, telephone operators, weavers, computers (people who compute for a living), et al moved on? Lots of jobs are clearly on the way out. We automate more and more work every year.

That's one reason (cheap natural gas being the other), that I think manufacturing will have a resurgance in the US in the next decade. It won't be accompanied by a big growth in jobs. The capital investment to build a factory will so dwarf the labor costs to operate it, that low skilled/low labor cost countries will struggle to compete.

So what happens when the need for labor is much lower than it is today? That's the big question. I wish I knew the answer.