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We are fighting for a new society
So, is it possible, can jobs be brought back? At the top of the list of Donald Trump’s promises to the American people is that he will bring jobs back. Many who voted for him held their noses or at least turned a blind eye to his divisive, racially charged rhetoric believing or hoping he could make good on the promise. But, for as far back as our collective memory goes as a nation, politicians have always made campaign promises designed to get them in office only to break those promises once they get in.
Trump is no ordinary politician. He is a corporate owner and member of the capitalist class, which contrary to his claims of being an outsider, makes him the ultimate insider. His cabinet choices confirm that he represents the billionaires. Trump knows that whatever jobs are saved, brought back or created will be mainly poverty-wage or temporary at best. The real killer of American jobs is not some foreign country or immigrant worker. It is the robot and the computer. And it is Mr. Trump’s fellow capitalists who have been introducing this technology into the workplace for quite some time now.
Take a look, for example, at the valiant struggle of minimum wage workers who are demanding $15 per hour so that they may have the dignity of feeding their families. In response to the Fight For 15 demonstrations that have taken place in hundreds of American cities, the McDonald’s Corporation has warned that rather than pay those wages, they will automate their restaurants. Once automated, those jobs are gone forever, just like what has been going on in the manufacturing sector for decades. This has the added effect of forcing the competition to lower costs by lowering the wages of their workers or replacing them altogether with robots to avoid being priced out of business.
In the short term, on the one side amasses maximum profit and wealth for the capitalist while on the other side is perpetual poverty, unemployment, dispossession and homelessness for workers. Keep in mind that while robots are more productive and cheaper than humans, they don’t shop. Obviously, this cannot continue without in the long run pushing us into another economic crisis more severe than the last. This is a market driven phenomenon and it’s spreading globally. No “Wall” can stop that.
It is in this context that Mr. Trump is asking the American people to unite behind his presidency and his program to get jobs. However, even if Trump is successful at getting some manufacturers to return because of his relaxed regulations and tax breaks, there is no guarantee that those jobs won’t be replaced by robots. The only guarantee we do have is we the American worker are going through this nightmare together.
It is we who must view any program for jobs, not from the point of view of how much profit it makes for this or that corporation, but from how many of us who are homeless get housed, or how many get healthcare, food, and clean water.
Just as what has happened to us transcends race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, so must be our unity. Without that unity there is little chance of building a new America where the human and economic needs of all our people are met. The robot and the computer make such a new America possible but it will become a reality only when they operate in the interest of “We The People” and not the corporations.
I just learned to post this issue on my Facebook page. I hope others will share and read it!
Exactly what I have been talking about, 4th generation robotics (that we are in) will be a big leap in job losses now hitting the lower income bracket. This will bring about major social upheaval as well as another economic crisis, not just in the United States, but globally. Some countries in Europe and the province of Ontario, Canada have been exploring the need for a basic income (also called unconditional basic income, Citizen’s Income, basic income guarantee, universal basic income or universal demogrant) is a form of social security in which all citizens or residents of a country regularly receive an unconditional sum of money, either from a government or some other public institution, in addition to any income received from elsewhere.
Companies say they will put robots in to do the work, rather than pay higher wages. Well they will be doing that irregardless, that statement just blames workers for wanting a living wage, so they can feel justified. Truth is robots are an employers dream worker. Robots do not need vacations (paid or otherwise). Robots do not require sick leave. Robots do not need to go home, so will work 24/7 (no lunch/bathroom breaks). Robots do not need any rights.
The driving field from automobiles (*1) to the trucking industry (*2), warehouses and order picking (Amazon and such(*3)). Even to biting into the service industry with Personal Teller Machine at banks (*4), grocery stores and lumber yards self-check-outs (*5 (most big chains have this already)), fast food chains (*6) and even breaking into the agricultural industry (*7).
*1 Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-first-self-driving-fleet-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on
*2 Self-driving 18-wheeler delivers the first shipment: Beer
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3134879/car-tech/self-driving-18-wheeler-delivers-the-first-shipment-beer.html
Inside Otto, Uber’s New Self-Driving Truck Division
http://time.com/4458507/otto-uber-deal-driverless-autonomous-trucks/
*3 Amazon warehouse robots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quWFjS3Ci7A
*4 Personal Teller Machine (PTM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1KngX3VTBs
Personal Teller Machine Self-Service Kiosk Solution
http://www.sourcetech.com/self-service/self-service-kiosks/personal-teller-machine
*5 Self-checkout
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-checkout
*6 Fast food workers are becoming obsolete
http://www.businessinsider.com/self-service-kiosks-are-replacing-workers-2016-5
Fast Food Chains Moving Quickly Toward Self-Service Kiosks
http://www.thedailymeal.com/fast-food-chains-moving-quickly-toward-self-service-kiosks
*7 Case IH’s self-driving tractors are the Terminators of the agricultural world
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/self-driving-tractors/#ixzz4PIa6a1uP
Elon Musk thinks universal income is answer to automation taking human jobs.
http://mashable.com/2016/11/05/elon-musk-universal-basic-income/#tcFU.VfkEmqQ
The profiteers know our needs and look for every imaginable way to exploit them. I moved my money from a big bank to a community bank. What a difference already! My conscience feels an itty bit better. #MyPower
The objective of human civilization is to eliminate work. Thus, advocating for jobs is a futile effort, since most jobs are a pointless waste of time and resources, and rapidly becoming a genuine threat to our survival. Fully a billion people on this planet are simply not needed to do anything in order for the global economy to “function”, and that number will only get larger. We should be fighting for a universal basic income, healthcare, food, clothing and housing for all. I believe that requires a Global Direct Democracy and the elimination of the corporation, patents and “intellectual property”, the nation-state, and all hierarchical systems of human control designed specifically to funnel wealth to the top, and “illth” to the bottom. We must all become global citizens now. Nothing less will suffice.