Author: San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim
Photo credit. Luke Thomas
The Rockhouse dabbles in various views of the coming Age of Robos and this one shows how some measure of fear about it has spread out almost to the grass roots level. (Sacramento Bee: Four jobs in 10 will soon go to robots. Will we get ready, or hide?)
Thanks to Pink for the tip and that's part of the reason for presenting it since this wasn't something I found and thought I would use to build a case. The article shows the case is already out there but people aren't sure what to do about it.
To understand the impact of the case, consider that about five million Americans work in retail sales jobs. To put that into context, there's been some exceptionally loud folderol and malcontented malarkey about coal miner jobs of late but there are only about seventy or eighty thousand of them. (Bureau of Labor Statistics: Retail Sales Workers)
While the Rockhouse is not interested in Doom & Gloom on this matter, we can see how they're already starting to panic by the third paragraph in the source article.
It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. A recent report from the accounting and consulting firm PwC stated that 38 percent of American jobs are at “high risk” of automation in the next 15 years. Other studies have put the number of jobs at risk even higher. Right now, technological advances are nearing the day when jobs in transportation, the financial sector, retail and hospitality can be done by robots.
- SactoBee
Now we see high risk and then even higher risk for jobs which may not evaporate for another fifteen years. The lag between now and evaporation varies from one source to another and nothing will change the outcome but there isn't solid agreement on how long it will take. In any case, there is time for planning so definitely get some of that.
After we see the article was motivated by the desire for a tax, we lose interest in the remaining content.
As an elected official in San Francisco, I’m currently assembling a working group to study the consequences of automation and examine policies to address it. Our first task is to shape a so-called “robot tax” – a proposal that would preserve the current payroll tax generated by a Californian currently working even when that worker is replaced by a robot or algorithm.
Our plan is to make sure all the money generated would be invested in lifelong job training, education and investments that create new high-wage jobs.
The idea behind this tax is that we must prepare now for the job displacement that will occur through automation in the next few years. This concept was recently advanced by Microsoft founder Bill Gates who knows a thing or two about technology.
- SactoBee
Ain't that precious, it's just another pitch for a tax but check out the magical promises which come from it.
The tax will make for lifelong job training and that's highly ambitious but we see trillions in debt for American college students so we don't believe a word about any tax going to an education program of any kind, much less one which runs for life.
The tax promises investments will create new high-wage jobs and that one just goes to Disneyland so it's not even worthy of comment.
The advantage of a retail sales job to a kid is it's a way the kid can earn some money when he or she realizes high school didn't prepare him or her for anything at all except the military. In some cases, Jane Kin's ideal world can apply because that kid is a smart Cinderella and only needs a pumpkin and some education to break out of retail to the world of big bucks.
However, for the most part you know it's fantasy and there are many doing such jobs or others which are obviously menial but the capabilities of the workers are limited. People are not equal in capability and trying to create the illusion may look good for the editorial strips but it won't do much of anything for sociology other than exacerbating the problems.
The universal GUI (i.e Guaranteed Universal Income) is almost inevitable and that one is typically plowed into the fields with the admonition it's too expensive. Do feel the joy of five million unemployed workers and the social dysfunction that unemployment will bring, however. The cost of that will inevitably be higher than designing a coherent system which manages the implementation of the Age of Robos rather than sitting plaintively on the sidelines whining helplessly about why everything is going to shit.
The topic of a top-to-bottom rebuild of the American educational system has come up previously and the gist comes to a large population of people who would be an appropriate audience for trade schools, community colleges, etc and but is not getting good guidance since we see so many with the mindset of four-year college or nothing.
Above all, we do NOT need another Band-Aid fix with taxes promised for some righteous purpose after we have seen that scam played so many times to no good effect.
Here's another look at the approach for a tax:
As an elected official in San Francisco, I’m currently assembling a working group to study the consequences of automation and examine policies to address it. Our first task is to shape a so-called “robot tax” – a proposal that would preserve the current payroll tax generated by a Californian currently working even when that worker is replaced by a robot or algorithm.
- SactoBee
When the first task is implement a tax, you know you're dealing with the bush league and to confirm that we need to know about June Kin's education. For example, how much has she studied economics, sociology, or anything of that nature.
Ed: what happened to Silas of the Socialist Left?
Typing now and at your service. The Socialist Left does believe in spending money but we do not believe in wasting it and, thus, we dismiss the idea proposed in the article. It doesn't think anywhere near far enough.
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