Why We Love It When Evil Robots Steal Our Jobs
The 2016 election has set off a national debate regarding globalization. Donald Trump addressed the frustrations of many Rust Belt voters who have been left jobless due to NAFTA and arguably won the election as a result.
However, it turns out that automation, not globalization, is the ultimate job killer. According to this study, globalization contributed to 13% of job losses while the rest were due to automation. Take the steel industry, for example, which laid off 75% of its workers without reducing its production volume. The workers were simply replaced by a new technology called the “minimill”. After all, having robots that can work 24 hours a day without taking any vacation or sick pay is much cheaper than paying human beings who can show up late to work, make mistakes, and file injury claims against the company.
And although it’s easy to vilify the corporations who replace their workers with layoffs, you and I are the main contributors to the job loss of others.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but yes, we’re the bad guys.
“If anything exists, it has an explanation of its existence.”
The Principle of Sufficient Reason
Think back to the last time you were at a grocery store. You’re deciding between two loaves of bread. Both of them are of the same quality and taste, but one is significantly cheaper than the other. Which one did you buy?
“The one that pays every single one of its employees six-figure salaries.”
Said no one ever.
If you’re like most of us, you rewarded the company that kept its costs low enough for you to buy the bread at the cheaper price. AKA the corporation that laid off its workers and implemented automation.
It’s not surprising, given that Americans did the exact same things when it came to non-unionized car manufacturing.
How American Consumers Voted Against Unions
Before labor protection laws were passed, people worked up to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, without any meal breaks or overtime pay. Although some early adopters, such as Henry Ford, implemented an eight-hour work day in order to keep employees happy, labor unions deserve the credit for lobbying our government and making the eight-hour work day a standard for all industries
Before unions, workers were commonly killed or injured at their jobs due to unsafe working conditions and their employers had no regard for their well-being. In 1911, for example, 146 garment workers were killed in a fire that was caused by factory equipment igniting; their employer had locked them in a room with no exit or fire escape.
There was also no such thing as sick pay. If a worker got too sick or injured to work, he or she simply stopped working and then starved to death. Even if the worker was injured due to unsafe working conditions.
Unions fought for many of the labor rights that many Americans take for granted today.
However, American consumers have decided unions are not a good thing as argued by James Sherk:
“Consider Detroit. Until the late 1970s, the United Auto Workers (UAW) made almost every car built in the United States. The union used its monopoly to force the Big Three automakers to pay highly inflated compensation. UAW members made more than many scientists. This added roughly $800 to the cost of every vehicle they built.
The higher prices hurt every driver who did not belong to the UAW. They also put a new car just out of reach for some low-income families. That meant the automakers made fewer cars and hired fewer workers.
Then competition arrived. Companies such as Toyota and Honda started selling vehicles in the United States, then started building their cars in the States with American workers. Non-union American workers. Their lower costs meant they could sell more-reliable vehicles at lower prices.”
Although this hurt the unionized auto industry workers, it benefitted low-income families who could now afford reliable cars at a cheaper price. In addition, this helped create more (non-union) auto manufacturing jobs outside of Detroit from Asian and European transplant factories. Instead of paying one unionized worker an inflated salary, transplant factories could now pay two non-unionized workers the market rate.
At the end of the day, companies have an obligation to serve its consumers the highest quality product at the lowest possible cost. Whether they do this through automation or through getting rid of unions, you and I, the American consumer, always vote in favor of this with our wallets.
The Lack of Highly Skilled Workers
When the horse and buggy started getting replaced by automobiles, there was undoubtedly a loss of jobs in the old industry. From the people who raised the horses to the drivers of the carriages, everyone in the industry must have felt devastated as their way of life was destroyed.
But on the flip side, new jobs were created on the automobile side. Car manufacturers, taxi drivers, and mechanics just to name a few.
Consumers voted with their wallets to let the horse and buggy die and to let automobiles take over. I think we can all agree that they made the right decision.
We can see that the same thing happened when Taxi drivers got replaced by Uber drivers. Or when Blockbuster got replaced by Netflix. Each of these changes were painful for the workers in the old industry, but it benefited the consumer base as a whole.
Forgive me for the cheesy quote but…
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”
Richard David Bach
We are virtually seeing the same cycle being repeated in the automation of factory jobs. It’s not heartwarming to see factory workers being laid off and replaced by automated technology. But we’re the ones voting for it with our wallets.
And on the flip side of this transition, we have new jobs being created in maintaining and fixing these robots.
In fact according to this study, there are about 6 million jobs that are left unfilled as of July 2016. Manufacturing alone accounts for 353,000 job openings every month.
The issue is that there aren’t enough highly skilled technicians with the manufacturing and engineering skills needed to maintain these robots. The very same companies that are laying off their low-skilled workers are having trouble hiring high-skilled workers to program and fix these robots when they break down.
Coming Up Next: Self-Driving Cars
Just as the horse and buggy was replaced by the automobile, the automobile will soon be replaced by self-driving cars. As of 2017, many self-driving cars are currently being tested and the technology will be perfected in a matter of time.
This will undoubtedly lead to job losses. Uber drivers, truck drivers, bus drivers, etc.
But on the flip side, we can look forward to less traffic deaths.
Despite airbags, blind spot detectors, and all sorts of other safety features, deaths by car accidents have begun rising dramatically for the first time in decades.
“In 2015, 35,092 people died in motor vehicle crashes, up 7.2 percent from 2014, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The 7.2 percent increase in 2015 was the highest in almost 50 years.”
Then in 2016, the rate rose again and over 40,000 people died in car accidents.
One of these culprits is Snapchat.
While seeing drivers lose their jobs will feel unjust, it’s another painful yet necessary transition for the sake of our safety.
What can we do now?
First let’s start with what we SHOULDN’T do: stop the progress of technology. Imagine if we decided, as a nation, to ban all automobile production in order to keep jobs in the horse and buggy sector.
Another thing we shouldn’t do is to blame Mexico, China, and illegal immigrants for the loss of jobs. Neither should we support leaders who do so. As mentioned before, this only accounts for 13% of job losses.
At the same time, we can transition into the era of automation with compassion for our fellow citizens.
Some ideas:
1) Vote for leaders who want to subsidize our future, not our past
Higher education, especially in the science and engineering field, will open career opportunities for our future citizens. This will help fill the 6 million unfilled jobs which require technical skills. And yet in 2016, we rejected the candidate who proposed we make college tuition-free for families making under $125,000. Instead, we voted for the candidate who essentially promised to “Make the Horse and Buggy Industry Great Again.” Let’s not vote for people like that anymore.
2) Tax the damn robots
Bill Gates suggests that we implement a “robot tax” on the factories so that we can help subsidize and pay for the jobs only humans can do. Companies who implement automation will be profiting immensely by laying off their workers. Why not tax them for doing so? At the same time, service jobs like teaching and nursing will still require human empathy and cannot be replaced by automation. Once again, we need to vote for the forward-looking leaders who prepare us for the future. Not the other guy stuck in the past.
3. Become a Masochist
“When you stop growing you start dying.”
William S. Burroughs
To grow constantly is an imperative in every human being. And the only way to grow, just like growing muscle, is to subject ourselves to some sort of pain and discomfort.
In other words, become a masochist.
I’ve mentioned before that the only way we’ll bridge the political gap is to start consuming news and debating people on the other side of the political spectrum. Otherwise we’ll become DumbFOX.
As a progressive, I’ve had to swallow the fact that some people’s lives were genuinely made more miserable after Obamacare was implemented and their premiums shot up. Whether Obamacare caused their misery is up for debate and really boils down to political interpretation. Point being, I was forced to grow and to understand why some voters wanted it repealed.
In the same vein, if we’re performing the same job day in and day out which could be taken by a robot, what does that say about our growth? And how much pain and discomfort we’ve put ourselves through to grow to the next level?
Although it’s difficult to predict the future, there are always economic trends we can become aware of simply by being more informed. We can then use this information to prepare for the future.
The average American watches 5 hours of TV a day. That is undoubtedly more than enough time to invest in learning a new skill set or even earning a degree.
The Republican party always takes a stand against welfare and subsidized health care because it believes in “taking personal responsibility.” But it’s interesting that this time around, they elected a leader who puts all the blame of job loss on immigration and free trade.
Not only is that wrong, since most jobs are taken by automation.
That’s called avoiding personal responsibility.
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Previous writings:
How We Became DumbFOX: Why We Now Live in the Post-Truth Era
Deplorable Racists and Immoral Moochers: Polarization in today’s politics
From Master to Puppet: How Christians are getting played by the Right
