Your next house should be built by... A ROBOT

[txlibdem]

Imagine that your next home could be built for 1/5th of the cost, completed in 1 day, with no construction waste and without having to watch 5 guys stand around doing nothing while the newbie pounds a nail. And danger to humans is virtually eliminated during the construction phase. If you've ever watched the show Holmes on Homes you are thoroughly familiar with the fact that contractors and home builders cut corners with safety and structural soundness all the time (but hide it all behind a pretty paint job so you'll never know) --some homes are a ticking time bomb and the owners think they're safe in their nice looking new home. How nice would it be if you could get rid of all those worries, if you could be 100% certain that the engineer's plans would be followed down to the millimeter and all materials used would be of the highest strength and quality, and your house will be as energy efficient as the award winning houses you see on tv.

But you'd be stuck with a boring square block house, right? Well, no. You can design any shape you want and let the engineer figure out how to make it structurally sound. The system was invented by a USC scientist who called it "Contour Crafting" and is in the process of commercializing the technology. The robot "prints" your house using either a special concrete mixture or adobe but a German company is working to find different materials as well. The walls of the house aren't just a big block of cement (so you don't have to worry about the environmental impact so much), they are a solid inner and outer wall with a weave pattern in the middle connecting the sides together. This will make it resource-friendly and incredibly strong as well. Using different admixtures to the concrete to make it stronger, dry faster, color, or increase the insulation properties are well understood by those in the concrete biz.

The advantages of Contour Crafting in response to natural disasters in other less developed nations typically has to do with the ability to transport the Contour Crafting machines to remote locations and utilize in situ construction materials. In the United States, the chief advantages of the Contour Crafting process is the greatly reduced cost vs. traditional construction methods and the greatly enhanced speed of fabrication.

...

By automating the construction process using Contour Crafting the cost of construction can be reduced to one fifth that of conventional methods. Conventional construction usually takes between 6 - 9 months to build a home, while Contour Crafting promises to build a 2,000 square foot two story house in less than 24 hours.

...

Due to the nature of computer controls and the accuracy of the extrusion process, Contour Crafting will be able to reconstruct the city in a very aesthetically pleasing way. No longer will structures be limited by rectilinear design, Contour Crafting will allow for architecturally interesting designs, including domes, arches, curves, vaults and even detailed patterns or designs.

http://www.contourcrafting.org/

Square, round, figure 8-ish, dodecahedron, or based on some freehand drawing. There is no limit to what this house building robot can do. Here are some examples of shapes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3fhryxVAsa4
(Note that the exterior texture will enable you to use stucco if you wish - or it could be perfectly smooth)

Straight Hollow Wall Construction with fiber reinforced concrete (best part starts at 0:46)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yv-IWdSdns&feature=related

Contour Crafting Utilities (robot installs plumbing at 1:12):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okl37F-szew

Here the robot is building a house from the ground up (CGI):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kphHR_r0A8c&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Here's their website -check out the narrated shockwave version (didn't work in Chrome so try IE):
http://www.contourcrafting.org/

Close-up animation of Curved Wall construction (24 MB)
http://craft.usc.edu/CC/Welcome_files/resources/media/Curved_Wall.wmv

Close-up animation of Dome construction (13 MB)
http://craft.usc.edu/CC/Welcome_files/resources/media/Dome.wmv

[rucky]

1. You could promote it in a way that doesn't bag on construction workers. n/t

[txlibdem]

3. That's true, I could. But my experiences have all been less than stellar.

I guess if all the homes I've bought over my life had been built well, built to code, built with quality in mind, I wouldn't have any beef with construction workers...

My post reflects my experiences with the subject matter. Perhaps your experiences were different. I'm happy for you. But this story really isn't about knocking construction workers as much as it is about saving their lives by having all houses and multi-story buildings built by robots. Humans will still be needed for the finishing touches but the bulk of the dangerous work will have already been done by the robots.

[WingDinger]

6. The reason why so many are incompetent, is they have been payed increasingly less for years.

Used to be a union job to do drywalling. And they were professional about it. Then, the con cos. started not hiring union, and going with illegals. For just over minimum wage. About what field pickers get. They seem about as professional. Blame the right guys. The companies. By the way, havent you seen the huge price drops on drywalling? No? Well, you wont see it on 24 hour houses either.

[txlibdem]

9. If what you say is true then you should be happy that those people are losing their jobs

The companies that hired illegals and put good, decent hard working Americans out of a job will go out of business. I applaud that outcome.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. If you bought a sub par crappy house that's yours and the developer's fault.

Not the guy pounding the nails.

Most people I know in the trades prefer to do quality work when given the opportunity. The developers and their customers set the bar for cheap materials and fast "good enough" work. By the way, "built to code" isn't good enough either.

[txlibdem]

17. prefer to do quality work when given the opportunity.

That about says it all.

Hi, I'm your heart surgeon and rest assured: I prefer to do quality work when given the opportunity...

I definitely agree with you about homes built to code. Some codes are far too stringent but most let the builder get away with too much slight of hand. And all you have to do is watch 2 or 3 episodes of Holmes on Homes to see the type of things I've found in houses after taking off the drywall so blaming the customer is the most heinous form of misdirection.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. What a wonderful way to put well paid workers on unemployment...

and keep the money in the hands of larger construction companies. I'm sure those displaced workers can get jobs selling burgers at Micky D's.

[txlibdem]

5. So we should pay 5 x the price just so some guy can have a nice cushy job?

The rest of us are all losing our jobs. I noticed your post said nothing about them, nothing about the fact that they are getting reduced pay now or are out of jobs, that most Americans will no longer be able to afford to own a home. But I guess that's alright as long as you have a good paying job. Right?

Take GM for example. Someone hired there prior to a year ago would make $28 an hour. A person hired for the exact same job this year will get paid $14 an hour!

Gosh, I'm sorry if my focus is on safety, energy efficiency, locally sourced materials, sustainable building practices, and reduced purchase price for homes. I should have been thinking of you instead.

[WingDinger]

7. You MAYYYYYYYY see a few percent price drop, if that.

[txlibdem]

12. In a Capitalist Ponzi Scheme economy there are no guarantees, you are right

But when the middle class finally disappears there will be nobody left to buy the overpriced but low quality tract homes that these crooked construction companies pump out, so the only companies to survive will be the ones authorized by Contour Crafting. Hopefully they'll do some social engineering with their approval process...

When we're all poor and almost nobody could afford a home at today's prices this technology will be the only way to have a home.

Personally, I plan to be building my next home with COB, working with the other residents of my commune.

[Ozymanithrax]

16. Cushy job. Clearly, you never worked construction.

And what makes you think that savings will be passed on to you.

First, you have to pay for the robots when a company like Pardee homes retools its entire workforce.

Then, it is whatever the market can bear.

My focus is on people who really work for a living. And since most of the construction jobs pay high wages, you just remove that pool of people form those who could buy your fantasy homes.

And I've noticed how GM was allowed to continue reducing the price humans can charge for their labor. You know, if you can build a robot to build a house, you can build better robots and just remove all those people building cars. GM is doing great, but the workers not so much. And if we just remove all those pesky workers from the work force, profits galore.

It seems to me that "safety, energy efficiency, locally sourced materials, sustainable building practices, and reduced purchase price for homes" is just another word for larger corporate profits. Just because we can do a thing with a robot doesn't mean we should.

[txlibdem]

20. My brothers work (or worked) in the construction industry so I know exactly how it is

You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your facts (or to ignore them when posting a snipe).

Your focus is on people who make good money. That's great for you. My focus is on the other 99.9999 percent of the American workers who will not be able to buy a home. Your kids will probably never have as good a lifestyle as you because of everyone looking out for themselves, defending their little corner of the status quo with as much bile and vicious attacks as they can.

"Then it is whatever the market can bear." The market IS the middle class and unless you haven't been reading or watching tv that is going away fast. Your kids and grandkids will pay the price for your high lifestyle. They will be the new poor and they will look you in the eye and say, "Thanks a lot, Grandpa!"

[Ozymanithrax]

25. My father, my brother, my two uncles, and I have worked construction.

My two nephews work construction.

If your brothers thought it was Cushy, they never worked a construction site I spent time on. Follow your own suggestion about snipe. Construction is hard dirty work. The Cushy jobs are in management.

You still have not addressed the idea that your robot doesn't lower prices but does continue creating more of that 99.9999 percent of people.

We used to have a textile industry in this country. That industry and those jobs are long gone. the people who worked them work for lower wages.

We used to have an auto industry. The remains exist with wages moving quickly in a third world direction.

Yes, the middle class is going away, replaced by a world global class who may be able to afford your robot produced homes for the prices that the companies that own the robots will charge. But the people you claim to defend, working at McDonald's (I worked there), in agriculture (I worked on a farm as a teenager), in restaurants (my mother and two sisters), plucking chickens, in the stores in the malls, and in a thousand other low wage jobs do not make enough money to buy a house now and will not in that Utopian ideal your robot exists in.

Only by rebuilding a middle class that can rely on good jobs can the consumerist reality we live in be maintained. We won't do this by taking the good jobs, replacing them with robots, and thinking that the owners of the machines give a damn about individuals. They care about profits and those machines will not be turned lose to build homes for the common folk.

[txlibdem]

26. That is your claim, not mine. I am under no obligation to defend it.

Some other poster claimed that the robotic builder won't lower home prices. I said no such thing and I won't be spending any time defending a hypothetical that I both do not agree with and can never disprove (nobody could).

In answer to your plea to keep the construction jobs the only thing I can say is, read post #6. Those jobs are going away fast. Highly skilled American workers are being fired in every field of endeavor and are being replaced by low paid, low skilled workers who will follow orders and keep their mouths shut. That isn't the fault of this robot builder. Construction jobs here in Texas have all gone to low paid workers. There are no more highly skilled tradesmen, no craftsmanship, no dedication to quality. It's gone.

Maybe where you live that isn't the case but here they just throw together any piece of crap that can be prettied up with drywall and paint and move on to the next lot.

If anyone should suffer loss of a job because of this robot then let it be the construction companies who are churning out crap houses at record high prices, and the managers within that system that are making it all stay hidden from view.

[Ozymanithrax]

31. Your utter disdain and loathing of people who work for living seems

clear in what you wrote. To welcome putting more people out of work appears to contradict any claim to be thinking of the poor. Making more of them isn't a benefit.

Such a machine would be revolutionary, and like all revolutions it would have many dire consequences, along with a few good things.

This is the type of pie in the sky simplistic futuristic Disney created. And such a robot would not hurt the "managers" but the people who swing the hammers.

[txlibdem]

35. You are right about one thing

Almost all of what you wrote is incorrect, I'm afraid. The construction industry is decades along in its push to get rid of all well paid workers. Those jobs were lost, are being lost and will continue to be lost with or without this robotic builder. Look up the facts, talk to some people who have been pushed out of the industry, learn some facts, please. You deserve to know the truth, not some RW talking points. "Pie in the sky" is just a phrase used to try to make the rest of us to have zero expectations, to be ok with the world going to hell in a hand basket all around us. You are wrong that all revolutions have dire consequences --the only consequences to revolution is that those who benefit from the status quo will be marginally inconvenienced. I can only find one thing in your screed that I agree with:

If done right, robots will put us all out of a job... And to that I say: Huzzah!

I am a socialist and a humanist (but also a Christian -go figure...) and I want all humans to be free from needing a job, be it manual labor, paper pushing, cubicle cages, or any of the other forms of wage slavery! I want all human beings to be free of the shackles of Capitalism with all necessities of life provided to us all equally (all done by robots with assistance or guidance from people who VOLUNTEER to do that work because they love it, not because they'll starve if they don't). I count among the rights of being a human the right to free clean healthy food and water (and clean air and a clean planet goes without saying), no cost comfortable shelter, free good quality clothing that protects us from excessive heat and cold as well as being ergonomically designed and comfortable and fits us perfectly, no cost medical care that utilizes the best technology our scientists and engineers can come up with and available to all equally, a top quality education to any level we can achieve without having to pay a dime, and free communications that will allow Democracy to flourish and allow each of us to explore the world as never before and provide each human in the world with complete instant and free access to all information created by our species.

In short, I want robots to do all the work which will push us all up from the bottom (1st) level in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs where most of us stay for our entire lives under Capitalism, up to the 3rd level, social needs, on the day of our birth --we are all responsible for bringing ourselves up to the 5th level: self actualization.



Why not let robots do all the work? We have all that we need to do this, right now. The only thing holding us back are those vested interests and the fearful who are "scared of change." We need bold action to end Capitalism and to bring our species out of the dark ages of wage slavery. Viva la Robots!

[joshcryer]

41. Yeah, a job that would've taken a half dozen guys 10 years ago can be done with two now.

I'm anti-work, myself, so I like the trend.

[The2ndWheel]

42. "with all necessities of life provided to us all equally"

And that's why humans have an ever increasing impact within the environment. Robots doing all the work won't decrease it.

Free and no cost come up a lot too. There is always a cost. We live in physical reality, not the human imagination. We'll have to give something up to live in the world you describe, and it won't be just the stuff you don't like, such as wage slavery. You're going to have to give up something that you like, that you enjoy, that you want. What would it be?

[txlibdem]

44. You need a visit from Quatto: "open your mind"

Your thinking is limited by the artificially stunted level of technology you see all around you each day. Do you honestly believe that the country that put the first man on the moon cannot build a reliable cell phone network? If you're an AT&T customer you will certainly have your doubts. If you're a Verizon customer you will still have occasional problems but will pay 40% to 50% more for the privilege. What you see in your daily life is the result of outside forces, the wealthy owners, forcing us all to be stuck in a time warp called the status quo --all so they can "maximize profits" on their investment. All that means is that you are getting old crap sold to you with a shiny coat of paint applied to it and the promise that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. What you are most definitely NOT getting is the best that American ingenuity can provide. You, my friend, have been sold a bill of goods.

Free is not free. Yeah. And 1+1 does not equal 2. Why do we have to pay for the food we eat and why is its nutrient quality so low? The reason is that the farmer has to pay for his fuel, equipment, pay wages to laborers he needs, pay taxes on his land, pay a huge mortgage and interest to the bank. So he is forced to sell his crops for much more than it actually cost to produce so that he can pay all those extra costs --and then, after all is said and done, pay for food, clothing, schooling, medical expenses, etc., for HIS family so that has to be tacked on to the price as well. The farmer sells the crops to a wholesaler who collects crops from dozens, hundreds maybe, of farmers in his area and then puts them on the open market to be resold to wholesalers in other parts of the nation and the world, thus distributing the produce from one area out to the world. He is going to add to the price of everything he sells because he has the same kind of costs that the farmer does: labor, equipment, fuel for the equipment, temperature control for the crops that need refrigeration, costs for his warehouse (taxes, rent or mortgage, etc.) and the list goes on and on. And as the crop is handed off to another person, each one wants to make some profit off of the transaction. So for every apple that you buy at the grocery store the actual cost of producing and distributing that apple will be somewhere between 10% and 25% of what you pay. That is the first reality: Capitalists make no money if they do not overcharge you for the goods they sell. The "smartest guys in the room" learned that the more they overcharge, the richer they become, and the more money they can collect and hoard, greed feeds upon greed, though, so their thirst is never satiated. They always feel that they need more and more money.

The oil companies are the most profitable companies in the history of the planet. Do you think they want you to be driving a clean, efficient, electric car? The auto companies make a large percentage of their profits off of maintenance and repairs to the overly complex and unreliable fossil fuel burning cars they sell to you. Do you think that their primary focus is going to be to switch all their production of vehicles to electric vehicles which need practically no maintenance at all?

The world you live in is not the world it could be. Your struggles are far greater because of decisions made by powerful persons who will benefit greatly from your losses and your suffering, or just your inconvenience in the case of cell phones.

You claim that I would have to give up something to live in the world I describe, a world free of Capitalist greed and corruption. Well, there's your answer: I give up the wealthy and their greed. I give up on paying 60% of the taxes to run this nation when 75% of the gains to go the top few percent of people and they only pay 40% of the taxes. Oh, the pundits love to trot out out that 40% figure: the wealthy are only a couple of percent of our population but they (sob) have to pay 40% of the taxes! Boo Hoo! (excuse me, I need a moment to wipe away the tears...) Yet since the wealthy make 75% of the benefits but are only paying 40% of the taxes that means that YOU, my friend, are paying 150% MORE TAXES than the wealthy, on a per dollar basis. Do not be confused by raw numbers, raw dollars: they are staggering. The rich pay Billions and Billions of dollars in taxes, collectively. But the fact remains that for every $1 they pay, YOU pay $1.50. And over the past 30 years your wages have not gone up, after inflation is factored in. The cost of houses, food, gas, clothing, other necessities have all gone up tremendously over the past 30 years but your wages have not. So, sure I'm willing to give something up: I give up the rich. Let them find some other place to live their fantasy lives of luxury and self-indulgence. I want a country where we all have everything we could ever need, where opportunity is truly there for each and every person, where the top 2% does NOT own more assets than the bottom 90% --as is the case right now in America.

[The2ndWheel]

49. "Well, there's your answer: I give up the wealthy and their greed."

That's the answer to a question I didn't ask. I was asking what you would give up, something that you want, that you like, that makes your life worth something to you. You can't just give up something that someone else has and call it a day...that's how we ended up with the wealthy.

"Why do we have to pay for the food we eat and why is its nutrient quality so low? The reason is that the farmer has to pay for his fuel, equipment, pay wages to laborers he needs, pay taxes on his land, pay a huge mortgage and interest to the bank. So he is forced to sell his crops for much more than it actually cost to produce so that he can pay all those extra costs --and then, after all is said and done, pay for food, clothing, schooling, medical expenses, etc., for HIS family so that has to be tacked on to the price as well. The farmer sells the crops to a wholesaler who collects crops from dozens, hundreds maybe, of farmers in his area and then puts them on the open market to be resold to wholesalers in other parts of the nation and the world, thus distributing the produce from one area out to the world. He is going to add to the price of everything he sells because he has the same kind of costs that the farmer does: labor, equipment, fuel for the equipment, temperature control for the crops that need refrigeration, costs for his warehouse (taxes, rent or mortgage, etc.) and the list goes on and on. And as the crop is handed off to another person, each one wants to make some profit off of the transaction. So for every apple that you buy at the grocery store the actual cost of producing and distributing that apple will be somewhere between 10% and 25% of what you pay. That is the first reality: Capitalists make no money if they do not overcharge you for the goods they sell. The "smartest guys in the room" learned that the more they overcharge, the richer they become, and the more money they can collect and hoard, greed feeds upon greed, though, so their thirst is never satiated. They always feel that they need more and more money."

So basically you're against agriculture, government, and corporations? Or, you like the benefits of each of the three, but want to somehow not pay the costs associated with doing any of them?

"So, sure I'm willing to give something up: I give up the rich. Let them find some other place to live their fantasy lives of luxury and self-indulgence. I want a country where we all have everything we could ever need, where opportunity is truly there for each and every person, where the top 2% does NOT own more assets than the bottom 90% --as is the case right now in America."

You don't really want to give up the rich. You want everyone to be rich. You want robots as the new wage slaves(just without the costs of a wage), and all the people to be wealthy and greedy. As greedy as is humanly possible too. Where we all have everything we could ever need. Everyone. Everything. Ever.

You do contain it only within the borders of America though. Is this a world wide idea, or does just 5% of the human population get in on the fun?

Castigate the rich for fantasy lives of luxury and self-indulgence in one sentence, then in the very next sentence what you really want are fantasy lives of luxury and self-indulgence for everybody. If we've got this many issues with just 2% of the population living this way(they do have everything they would ever need), how is there going to be a habitat with everyone living the way of the 2%?

[txlibdem]

52. I focus on the country in which I live, the one I know is now an oligarchy

Perhaps the rich have also staged their slow-motion coup against the European nations as well but they at least have a semblance of safety net and much better financial equity than here in the US. I attack the problem where it is worst.

When fighting a fire do you put 10 firetrucks on a single bush that's ablaze while ignoring the nearby hillside that is engulfed in flames?

The rest of your comment is not worth the time to answer or refute. My opinion stands on its own merits.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RC]

29. Construction work is not "...a nice cushy job"

It's hard work. Manual labor, often outside in the heat and bugs, cold, rain, etc.

[joshcryer]

40. It beats a desk job any day.

:D

[RC]

43. I've done both. I prefer the desk job.

Paid better also.

[Nederland]

32. Sigh. Typical response to all technological advances

The US used to consist of 90% farmers, then mechanized farming came along. Now less that 2% of us farm for a living, but I don't hear anyone complain about the fact that they no longer have to spend 14 hours a day plowing fields just to survive...

Don't be a Luddite and curse the technology. Instead work to ensure that the benefits are spread across society, not just the few.

[WingDinger]

4. 24 hours huh? Will it be cheap enough for unemployed conmen? {construction that is}

[txlibdem]

8. The realities of this economy, I'm afraid.

I didn't make this economy. I'm just putting some ideas out there so that people trapped in this Capitalist Ponzi Scheme we have here in America can live something like a normal life.

I'm not working and my wife had to take a 2nd job and we're still just barely hanging on so please don't expect me to cry great big alligator tears for construction workers.

[Speck Tater]

10. Since humans are becoming more and more obsolete I guess their extinction doesn't really matter. nt

[txlibdem]

13. There will still have to be humans to finish the interior, plumbing, hook up electrical, etc

So it won't be as bad as you say. Only the jobs that are too dangerous for humans will be done by the robot.

Maybe some day they'll make a sink-building robot and a carpet laying robot? That'll be a ways off.

[maxsolomon]

11. "Contour Crafting will allow for architecturally interesting designs"

uh-huh. more likely it would cause more aesthetic blight.

[txlibdem]

15. Your term is a non sequitur

It cannot be applied to this very aesthetic and natural building robot.

This robot can make a building from adobe or clay. Can you say the same thing about the subdivisions in your area?

[valerief]

18. No jobs, no money, but homes to buy. Those lucky Chinese with the jobs! nt

[txlibdem]

22. There will be plenty of low wage service jobs, our Republican President will make sure of that!

Don't worry so much. Houses will cost 1/5th as much so you'll be better off even with a lower paycheck!

[valerief]

30. NAFTA rationale that didn't pan out. Phfft! nt

[pnwmom]

19. There go millions more jobs. Great. n/t

[txlibdem]

21. Read post #6 -- the jobs are going, going, gone already!

WingDinger (507 posts) Mon Dec-13-10 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. The reason why so many are incompetent, is they have been payed increasingly less for years.

Used to be a union job to do drywalling. And they were professional about it. Then, the con cos. started not hiring union, and going with illegals. For just over minimum wage.

[txlibdem]

23. From reading all the responses I can see that its the companies that are at fault

And this robot house builder will put many of the crooked construction companies out of business.

That will be a good thing from what I've seen in my own experience, and its backed up from all your posts.

[Kennah]

24. Robots built in China, software written in India

Yeah, I'm sure it will go just wonderfully. This will lead to automated shortcomings and shortcuts in the building code standards.

[txlibdem]

27. The inventor works at USC

I don't see any evidence of your claim. But in case it is true, I'll tell you the same thing I've told everyone else: read post #6.

[Kennah]

28. You mean we aren't outsourcing the whole country? Sweet!

[joshcryer]

33. Love the luddites in this thread.

[txlibdem]

36. I agree

Some people shrink away from change no matter how beneficial it would be for them!

[joshcryer]

38. FYI I do construction.

And we're unionized. And we have big nice cushy government contracts. And I'm all for this shit.

[txlibdem]

39. Read post #35

You'll see my Raison d'être clearly stated. I do not believe that any of us are living the life we should be living. Post #35 explains why and what we should be doing instead.

PS, I've never worked in a union but I've wanted to ever since I was a teenager. I thought that IT would be a more stable path and that career is like oil and water to unions. I believe that talking to loudly about wanting to form a union cost me one job but I'm not too sure; it could have been my charm and whit instead. Other than that I guess I can't complain: I had an 18 year career out of it and it was fun while still being mentally challenging. An Asperger's person can't ask for more than that (plus I didn't have to talk to people very much, that was custom made for me).

[Celebration]

34. Okay, I am going to look at these tomorrow

Thanks.

[txlibdem]

37. Sorry for the length of the thing, you gotta take in the whole story

Read the contourcrafting.org website to get higher quality videos... I didn't notice that when I posted all those youtube links (oops!).

[Odin2005]

46. LOL, the luddites are out gnashing their teeth.

Technological Unemployment is a problem of Capitalism, not technology.

[joshcryer]

47. Nice term. Technological Unemployment. ;)

And yes, it's a problem capitalism has, not humanity.

[txlibdem]

48. There is no humanity to capitalism

There is one, and only one, moral code: get more money! Underpay your employees so you keep more of it, invest and get lucky, or steal it, it does not matter to the capitalist. Insurance executives make millions each year, and their decisions directly cause the deaths of over 40,000 Americans each year. Why are the rich not in jail?!?

[The2ndWheel]

50. How is technological unemployment not about technology?

It has to play some role, doesn't it? It's the first word of the phrase.

[Odin2005]

51. Technological Unemployment is a result of how Profit works in Capitalism.

[txlibdem]

53. A twisted focus on profit and not on the betterment of Mankind

There can be no real progress as long as humanity is tied to the yoke of Capitalism. It's like being forced to donate a pint of blood each and every day. Your body cannot last forever doing that, no matter how you wish it could, how many multivitamin suppliments you take, not even Gatorade can save you: that drain on your person will eventually kill you. This is Capitalism: draining the life's blood from the poor and middle class so that a few self-centered individuals can live high on the hog.