Almost Classical

I've written a few times on this topic. The cold reality is that today's technology economy is different  when compared to the Industrial Revolution. Unlike the Industrial Revolution, which eventually created new jobs, products, and wealth, I'm concerned that the tech revolution is going to result in fewer jobs. Oh, it will still create new products and wealth… but not nearly enough jobs to offset what will be lost. You might wonder if I'm being alarmist. But, the new jobs of the Industrial Revolution did not require specialized knowledge or abilities. You only needed a body that worked to take a factory job. A high school diploma was sufficient, and even that wasn't always essential. Today, the new jobs require skills only a few people have or can obtain. As the following article demonstrates, we simply do not need as many people in this economy. In science fiction and utopian literature, the machines would free us to sit around and be creative. But, such crea...

President Obama and many others keep saying we need to bring manufacturing jobs and even ag jobs "back to America." Apparently, President Obama and others don't realize the U.S. now manufactures more goods and harvests more crops than at any time in our history. The jobs were not all outsourced. They were robo-sourced, along with your bank teller, grocery clerk, bookkeeper, file clerk, and hundreds of other jobs that are not coming back because they were not shipped overseas. They are gone. And gone for good. The Kia plant in Georgia is a prime example of automation. The plant manufactures as many cars as the busiest 1950s GM plant. But, unlike the old auto plants, modern plants are "manned" by robots. Watch the video and ask yourself how many men and women were replaced by the automation. This plant is in Georgia not South Korea. They can run the line with as few as 1000 workers according to one report I read. In the 1970s, GM's "Buick City...