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Unions trying to fend off automation, or minimize the impact

14 Comments
By CATHY BUSSEWITZ

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14 Comments
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Society won't survive if automation and AI eliminate millions of tax-paying jobs. Universal support will be required if people don't have jobs or have shorter working hours. The industrialists will push for automation without concern for job losses.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

I’m glad the dock workers negotiated a great deal for themselves because this is an industry that is going away thanks to automation.

Fewer accidents, less disruption, greater productivity. That’s not something to be resisted, but the workers who ushered in the new era deserve a piece of the pie.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The developed economies will need fewer people in the future. AI promises to automate sooo many jobs. Japan will be very well-positioned. Unions will need to stay strong, because spending by the middle class is what produces prosperity more than anything else.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

In the future society will need less than 50% of the current labor force.

Musical instruments will be made and repaired by robots more effectively and cheaper.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

When blue collar labor was being automated they were told 'Learn to code'.

Now a great deal of code is being produced iteratively with minimal human interaction by LLM.

Reskilling is hitting a wall.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

All of the arguments from the unions and their "allies" are exactly the same arguments made by the Luddites 200 years ago. The Luddites were proven wrong and the unions and their allies will be as well.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

When blue collar labor was being automated they were told 'Learn to code'.

I’d rather learn to engage in a social occupation and develop my EQ which no machine can do.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

And with the growing use of artificial intelligence, the group of jobs workers perceive as threatened with disruption is ever-widening.

In the neo-liberal capitalist countries we could be headed to disaster and millions of jobs are automatable now and in the near term.

I already know graphic designers and translators who have lost almost all their work because of multi-modal LLM.

In Sweden however..

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/27/business/the-robots-are-coming-and-sweden-is-fine.html

'They save workers, not jobs' , removing the fear of destitution workers have in other places like the US and Japan.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Luddites!

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

In the future society will need less than 50% of the current labor force.

You will always need people to help and work on the docks, you will always need manpower.

Musical instruments will be made and repaired by robots more effectively and cheaper.

Never, and this I can tell you as a musician.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

It’s ok as the push for depopulation has already started.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Society won't survive if automation and AI eliminate millions of tax-paying jobs.

You can keep people and implement automation

Universal support will be required if people don't have jobs or have shorter working hours. The industrialists will push for automation without concern for job losses.

Then if they want to become irrelevant that is up to them.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

If people refused to use automation then people would keep their jobs.

It’s simple to pay by cash, use a manned counter instead of a self service checkout in a supermarket or check-in at an airport counter instead of a terminal.

It’s our choice…

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

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