Opinion The Next Pandemic - Automation-Outsourcing-Robotics

[Senzo Tanaka]

I've been thinking about this for awhile...

COVID-19 showed just how fragile our economy, business and food supply chain is where it only took 2-3 months to virtually collapse.

Ironically, thanks to COVID-19, I think it's going to usher in the next great pandemic of automation, robotics and outsourcing.

Event #1: Real Estate Collapse - Starting this year and certainly next year, you are going to see a mass closure of big offices since companies have adjusted to a lot of their workforce working from home. The companies that need office space will downsize and have satellite/hotel sites for essential workers. You're basically going to have a ghost town of office buildings and no one to fill them. That will impact the economy, state taxes and the real estate market.

Event #2: Mass Outsourcing - The companies that managed to survive COVID-19 will start looking to recoup their losses from basically 1-2 years of lost profit. The offices are closed and most of their workforce is remote. The execs will start to wonder why they are paying people they don't even know or see in person anymore high wages when they can simply outsource the same work to India or the lowest bidder overseas. Who cares where the work gets done from if we are all remote?

Event #3: Automation/Robotics - For the smaller businesses that pay minimum wage, there is a real possibility that $15 is going to be the new minimum wage soon. We've already seen some businesses decide to flat out close instead of pay their workers high wages. Instead of close, you are going to see those companies heavily invest in things that will reduce their workforce to keep paying the minimum wage and offset the costs. This is beginning now. McDonalds is putting in ordering kiosks. Walmart has installed more self-checkout registers and is testing out robot floor cleaners. There are even some places that outsource the drive-thru calls to India. Truck drivers make up almost 4 million workers in the country and self-driving trucks are currently being tested. it will be the next automotive industry crash.

So basically you are dealing with a situation where there are going to be very few jobs left for people to work from working class all the way to white collar. Now what? If you think the panic from COVID-19 was bad, what do you think is going to happen when you have healthy people that can't find work and need to eat? UBI is an absolute must and it needs to be implemented long before we have this problem. There are some definite concerns with UBI but we aren't going to have a choice. I think eventually you may even need a federal jobs guarantee and the government basically makes up jobs for people to do. In Japan for instance, the government will pay people to hold up Stop and Go signs for walkers. It's completely unnecessary but the alternative is that person wouldn't have a job otherwise and would be homeless. Isn't it better to give them something to do, a purpose in life and a modest income than to have someone sleeping on the street, panhandling, drinking, doing drugs and make the city look good?

It's coming boys. I think just like COVID-19, you are going to see politicians drag their feet and avoid UBI long after it's too late. It'll eventually happen but not after the damage has already been done.

 

[Officer Rick]

How about we get through the current one first

 

[Papi Chulo]

I've been thinking about this for awhile...

COVID-19 showed just how fragile our economy, business and food supply chain is where it only took 2-3 months to virtually collapse.

Ironically, thanks to COVID-19, I think it's going to usher in the next great pandemic of automation, robotics and outsourcing.

Event #1: Real Estate Collapse - Starting this year and certainly next year, you are going to see a mass closure of big offices since companies have adjusted to a lot of their workforce working from home. The companies that need office space will downsize and have satellite/hotel sites for essential workers. You're basically going to have a ghost town of office buildings and no one to fill them. That will impact the economy, state taxes and the real estate market.

Event #2: Mass Outsourcing - The companies that managed to survive COVID-19 will start looking to recoup their losses from basically 1-2 years of lost profit. The offices are closed and most of their workforce is remote. The execs will start to wonder why they are paying people they don't even know or see in person anymore high wages when they can simply outsource the same work to India or the lowest bidder overseas. Who cares where the work gets done from if we are all remote?

Event #3: Automation/Robotics - For the smaller businesses that pay minimum wage, there is a real possibility that $15 is going to be the new minimum wage soon. We've already seen some businesses decide to flat out close instead of pay their workers high wages. Instead of close, you are going to see those companies heavily invest in things that will reduce their workforce to keep paying the minimum wage and offset the costs. This is beginning now. McDonalds is putting in ordering kiosks. Walmart has installed more self-checkout registers and is testing out robot floor cleaners. There are even some places that outsource the drive-thru calls to India. Truck drivers make up almost 4 million workers in the country and self-driving trucks are currently being tested. it will be the next automotive industry crash.

So basically you are dealing with a situation where there are going to be very few jobs left for people to work from working class all the way to white collar. Now what? If you think the panic from COVID-19 was bad, what do you think is going to happen when you have healthy people that can't find work and need to eat? UBI is an absolute must and it needs to be implemented long before we have this problem. There are some definite concerns with UBI but we aren't going to have a choice. I think eventually you may even need a federal jobs guarantee and the government basically makes up jobs for people to do. In Japan for instance, the government will pay people to hold up Stop and Go signs for walkers. It's completely unnecessary but the alternative is that person wouldn't have a job otherwise and would be homeless. Isn't it better to give them something to do, a purpose in life and a modest income than to have someone sleeping on the street, panhandling, drinking, doing drugs and make the city look good?

It's coming boys. I think just like COVID-19, you are going to see politicians drag their feet and avoid UBI long after it's too late. It'll eventually happen but not after the damage has already been done.

That's the shame of this whole charade and pretending that the rona is going to kill everyone. Make more than half of society scared or half of society wants this to happen so that they can get rid of a guy that posts mean things on twitter. It's a leftist's dream come true, dehumanize people with masks, take away their smile, their fellowship with one another and what you posted above is probably what this all leads to eventually with massive amounts of people living scared at home with no job depending on the government

 

[djacobox372]

Good, people don't need jobs, they need wealth--and automation generates more wealth.

Just have to deal with the distribution part of the equation.

 

[Zazen]

The problem ain't automation, it is greed. Automation would create so much wealth. This could be amazing for human civilization if we were to get a UBI or some equivalent of that. I've always found it bizarre how many people identity themselves only by what they do for a living. Human beings are so much than that. Nobody is happy at most of these jobs anyway

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

Good, people don't need jobs, they need wealth--and automation generates more wealth.

Just have to deal with the distribution part of the equation.

That's a very optimistic take. Many sci-fi writers in the early part of the last century felt that way. They actually cheered on automation and robotics. They believed that once the robots took our jobs, humans could focus on relaxing, the arts, reading and just enjoying life in general. I take more of the pessimistic side where I think idle hands are the devil's playground. Most people need a purpose in life. You see many older people that retire end up dying young or having health problems because they aren't doing anything. Meanwhile, the older people that get jobs at Walmart or take up a hobby, they end up living a lot longer since they now have a reason to get out of bed every day.

I'd love for us to all have UBI and not have to work but I just can't see that happening. I won't be a utopia. I envision more of a Mad Max scenario.

 

[HockeyBjj]

The myth “robots are gonna take our jerbs!” Has been happening since I was in highschool in 06.

Still haven’t seen mass layoffs happening yet. The change is happening at a far slow enough pace for workplace/workforce to adapt to. This hasn’t been like the coal miners.

 

[HockeyBjj]

You're basically going to have a ghost town of office buildings and no one to fill them.

This has already happened with malls and big box stores not named Walmart. Hasn’t been great, but hasn’t really been horrible.

Event #2: Mass Outsourcing

Again, already happening. This isn’t gonna be some new economy wrecking event.

Instead of close, you are going to see those companies heavily invest in things that will reduce their workforce to keep paying the minimum wage and offset the costs.

Again, as opposed to what? Company looks to reduce their overhead costs. That has been happening since the dawn of time. Jobs and roles shift to adapt. The fear of massively changing the nature of needing a job to make money gets pushed down the road another few decades like has been happening since the industrial revolution.

 

[second sight]

soon it will be robots were building robots and nobody will be needed, the whole world will be a private club of big techies and politicians

also ts, I don't think your interpretation of "a total collapse" is very accurate

 

[Zazen]

That's a very optimistic take. Many sci-fi writers in the early part of the last century felt that way. They actually cheered on automation and robotics. They believed that once the robots took our jobs, humans could focus on relaxing, the arts, reading and just enjoying life in general. I take more of the pessimistic side where I think idle hands are the devil's playground. Most people need a purpose in life. You see many older people that retire end up dying young or having health problems because they aren't doing anything. Meanwhile, the older people that get jobs at Walmart or take up a hobby, they end up living a lot longer since they now have a reason to get out of bed every day.

I'd love for us to all have UBI and not have to work but I just can't see that happening. I won't be a utopia. I envision more of a Mad Max scenario.

Purpose does not equal job. People taking up jobs at walmart are broke people. Nobody at that age will work at those places unless they are desperate for extra cash. Most older folks choose to follow a passion. Passion is the key, not a job. Maybe its just an American thing but way too many people here define themselves by their job.

 

[Otto!]

Robots don’t pay income tax, so employers should have to pay extra tax whenever they replace workers with machines to offset loss of revenue.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

Robots don’t pay income tax, so employers should have to pay extra tax whenever they replace workers with machines to offset loss of revenue.

Honestly, that's a really solid idea. I'd go as far as to make outsourcing illegal or there being a heavy penalty. You can provisions if you can't simply find a worker locally to perform that job. A tax penalty for every robot that would be a human job could definitely work.

The issue is with most of these companies that outsource, automate and use robots to replace humans is that they are already incredibly wealthy and they do it to get even more insanely wealthy. You have to start punishing greed. You are damaging society and communities at that point.