China’s Troubling Robot Revolution

[NobleSavage]

Well, duh, yeah!

In 2014, Chinese factories accounted for about a quarter of the global ranks of industrial robots — a 54 percent increase over 2013. According to the International Federation of Robotics, it will have more installed manufacturing robots than any other country by 2017.

Foxconn, which makes consumer electronics for Apple and other companies, plans to automate about 70 percent of factory work within three years, and already has a fully robotic factory in Chengdu.

In mid-2013, the Chinese government revealed that only about half of the country’s current crop of college graduates had been able to find jobs, while more than 20 percent of the previous year’s graduates remained unemployed.

I only copied the factual stuff. Check the link if you want the opinion which is that China will have to resort to direct income supplementation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/opinion/chinas-troubling-robot-revolution.html

 

[barbos]

Who should it trouble?
I think it troubles Chinese first, because the only advantage China has is cheap slave labor. Once robots get cheaper then human slaves dumb manufacturing will go back to US and Europe and no more ships full of containers doing from China.

 

[NobleSavage]

Who should it trouble?
I think it troubles Chinese first, because the only advantage China has is cheap slave labor. Once robots get cheaper then human slaves dumb manufacturing will go back to US and Europe and no more ships full of containers doing from China.

The robot problem is world wide. The US racing forward and it's not just "dumb manufacturing".

 

[Nice Squirrel]

But we need people to maintain and install those robots. Also, China is commie. They'll need to keep their minions occupied.

 

[dismal]

Smash the looms!

 

[barbos]

Who should it trouble?
I think it troubles Chinese first, because the only advantage China has is cheap slave labor. Once robots get cheaper then human slaves dumb manufacturing will go back to US and Europe and no more ships full of containers doing from China.

The robot problem is world wide. The US racing forward and it's not just "dumb manufacturing".

True but developed world has already lost dumb manufacturing, so there is no way to lose it again.
China on the other hand just (relatively speaking) got dumb manufacturing and their whole economy is based on it, now they are going to lose it. As for US, I think most people will be glad with doctors losing their jobs to robots, will make health care less unfordable. In any case service sector (which is majority of US/EU economy) is in less danger to robot invasion than manufacturing

 

[NobleSavage]

The robot problem is world wide. The US racing forward and it's not just "dumb manufacturing".

True but developed world has already lost dumb manufacturing, so there is no way to lose it again.
China on the other hand just (relatively speaking) got dumb manufacturing and their whole economy is based on it, now they are going to lose it. As for US, I think most people will be glad with doctors losing their jobs to robots, will make health care less unfordable. In any case service sector (which is majority of US/EU economy) is in less danger to robot invasion than manufacturing

The service sector is prime for the chopping block: Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks, Lowe's, Kroger, etc. No need for those jobs and that is a LARGE segment of the available jobs.

 

[barbos]

True but developed world has already lost dumb manufacturing, so there is no way to lose it again.
China on the other hand just (relatively speaking) got dumb manufacturing and their whole economy is based on it, now they are going to lose it. As for US, I think most people will be glad with doctors losing their jobs to robots, will make health care less unfordable. In any case service sector (which is majority of US/EU economy) is in less danger to robot invasion than manufacturing

The service sector is prime for the chopping block: Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks, Lowe's, Kroger, etc. No need for those jobs and that is a LARGE segment of the available jobs.

Not all service can be automated easily. Amazon have been trying to kill Walmarts for quite some time but it's still there.
I can see macdonalds going humanless sooner than Warmarts.

 

[dismal]

I recommend watching this video before our robot overlords ban it:

[YOUTUBE]xb93Z0QItVI[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Jayjay]

Who should it trouble?
I think it troubles Chinese first, because the only advantage China has is cheap slave labor. Once robots get cheaper then human slaves dumb manufacturing will go back to US and Europe and no more ships full of containers doing from China.

The robot problem is world wide. The US racing forward and it's not just "dumb manufacturing".

The robotization will make price of labor less relevant, which means other factors like price of shipping become more relevant. Even if US or Europe might not have any technological advantage, they would have the advantage of proximity to their own home markets.

The downside is that Western exports to China or any other places with sufficiently advanced robotics would likewise diminish.

 

[NobleSavage]

The robotization will make price of labor less relevant, which means other factors like price of shipping become more relevant. Even if US or Europe might not have any technological advantage, they would have the advantage of proximity to their own home markets.

The downside is that Western exports to China or any other places with sufficiently advanced robotics would likewise diminish.

Well, the point of my OP was that a lot of people will soon wake up without a job. China being just one more example.

I'll agree with you that the costs of shipping will become more important; however, in the context of balance of trade, things like tax rates and regulations will be greatly magnified as well. Legislation is likely to be the decisive factor when labor is trivial or doesn't exist. Which leads to an interesting conundrum: how do you levy taxes without exacerbating the problem?