Mountain Dew built by robots...and 'relentlessly automating'

This is actually a big problem coming in our future as more companies automate. Where will the people go?
 
georgel said:
This is actually a big problem coming in our future as more companies automate. Where will the people go?
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There will still be plenty of people needed to fix the automation and service type industries. Automation is primarly taking the repeatitve jobs most people work two days and quit anyway.
 
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I don't think we're really going to see the impact of automation until they come up with self driving trucks that are reliable, relatively safe, and cheaper than employing a human driver. Once that happens, you're going to see nearly 4 million people loose their jobs in a short period of time.

That's 4 million guys, many of whom only have a high school education, and are supporting a family with their work. Can't really send them down to the cubicle farm and have them write code.
 
We're selling an increasing amount of automated products, the companies are investing a lot of money for two main reasons;
1)- They run 24/7 without complaining, calling in sick, taking breaks, getting injured, and consistent productivity.
2)- There is a major shortage of people to hire. Putting a machine in a 'repetitive dead end job' and relocating folks that already know the facility and have a good track record.

So far we haven't seen people get let go. the companies all still looking for people with a brain and a work ethic.
https://www.raymondcorp.com/automation
 
Well if you think the Chinese are smart then you’ll note that the result of the one child program will be a steady population decline as automation can fill the majority of jobs in China.

And if you think the Chinese are not smart then you’ll point out that the lesson from history is that you need a growing population with growing earnings to sustain real economic growth.

I think the Chinese are smart, but I question why they believe that Apple (just an example) will pay a Chinese company to maintain an automated assembly plant for iPhones, when such a plant could just as easily be in Peoria Il.
 
People act like this is new. I was placing computer process control and machine automation engineers 30 years ago. This is just a culmination of the industrial revolution that started several hundred years ago.
 
georgel said:
This is actually a big problem coming in our future as more companies automate. Where will the people go?
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Same thing happened in the late 1800s with things like the mechanical reaper - they went to the cities and got different jobs. (that said, the urbanization, with drastic industrialization and a laissez faire gov policy = a crappy situation in cities, but still, people continued on)
We have to adapt, and we have in the past.
It'll all be fine.
 
HMP said:
Same thing happened in the late 1800s with things like the mechanical reaper - they went to the cities and got different jobs. (that said, the urbanization, with drastic industrialization and a laissez faire gov policy = a crappy situation in cities, but still, people continued on)
We have to adapt, and we have in the past.
It'll all be fine.
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Have you considered that in the past folks were motivated, if they didn’t adapt they failed, now if they don’t adapt we’ll carry them.
 
JimB said:
Have you considered that in the past folks were motivated, if they didn’t adapt they failed, now if they don’t adapt we’ll carry them.
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There are still many motivated people out there.
 
noway2 said:
Henry Ford has the right idea in that his employees were his customers. Business in AmeriKa has forgotten that principle. Instead, it’s screw you, I got my fast buck, who cares that we’re all out of work tomorrow.
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Except for the dirty Jews... No model T's or jobs for them...
 
Had a discussion once with a Employment Security Commission worker. Their office was in Kannapolis when they were closing Cannon Mills. She said, "They talk about retraining and finding new higher tech jobs. But, many of these people have only known the mill and came there straight out of high school. Their parents only knew the mill and their grandparents as well. They're not retrainable for high tech jobs. They dont have the education. There will only be so many lower paying service jobs available because the area is depressed. They'll go on unemployment and when that runs out, they'll turn to crime."

Logically, there will not be an equitable amount of jobs supporting the mechinization that replaces jobs. What would be the point if you're going to spend more money on technical support people than you would spend on them to do the original job?

Just sayin'
 
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There will be a lot of displacement. But motivated people can find something of value to do.
Look at it this way - automation increases the total size of the economy and amount of wealth (stored value, in this case, stored as productive capacity).
Yes, the rich will get richer on this, using their money to buy automati0n, and make more money, but they'll spend a lot of it on _something_. They buy more stuff, hire more services, maybe give some away, invest in things that make more money (but spend money in the process).
We have whole industries that would be inconceivable (in my best Princess Bride imitation) a hundred years ago. Both useful ones, and then things like "makeup artist" or "feng shui consultant" or "women's studies professor".
Anyway, don't sweat it.
 
Ah, but I am "sweating it". Well, concerned anyway. What's happened in local mill towns when textiles went overseas? Are these people yoga instructors and Feng Shui consultants? How's the drug and crime problem there? Will they move or drive to the BIG city to find work? This relates to my prediction of the "rich" dystopian controlled urban centers surrounded by the poor unwashed masses in the lawless outlands.

Just sayin'
 
I am a member of a pretty stagnant workplace. I have worked at the same place doing the same job for 53 years. No computers in our work place...none. The only computers in the building are outside where the Work is being done. There is only one way to make he product we make and people still go Shopping for our product. We have 9 outside accounts that take our product and sell it to their customers for up to 10 Times what we charge our customers. It's not a loss for us because we got our regular price and were never going to get their customer anyway.
The computers outside the work area keep up with the customers from the moment they come in the door until they get to us. There have been several times the computers were "down" and NO work came to us. I went outside and told the entire gathering " Let's do it the same way we did it 65 years Before we got the computers". Work commenced. I am almost a computer illiterate. I am lucky that they have no impact on our industry in the Actual production of the product.
 
I'm sure I'm not the only one who suspected a co-worker was indeed already a Robot.
 
Part of what the impending 5G roll out is all about...getting shed of home installation techs and their attendant infrastructure.
 
Many years ago (maybe 15-18) I was reading a business article about the economic miracle that was Texas at the time. It discussed the rapid growth of employment and other signs of economic success in the lone star state due to favorable business conditions. One of the unintended consequences the author discovered in researching the article was that the average "half life" of a business in TX was basically half of what it once was at some "recent" previous point in their economic history.

My takeaway from the article was that as businesses thrive and grow, and new technologies and services emerge, some of them are invariably "disruptive" (i.e. the world wide web being a giant example), and so some businesses fall by the wayside at an even greater rate while others are innovating and expanding.

Do the "little people", the tiniest moving parts "in the machine" if you will, fall victim to obsolescence at a greater rate? They do and they will, no way around it. But I'd rather have a thriving economy where the big picture is bright, where many can find another place for themselves, rather than one that is stagnant.
 
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georgel said:
Ah, but I am "sweating it". Well, concerned anyway. What's happened in local mill towns when textiles went overseas? Are these people yoga instructors and Feng Shui consultants? How's the drug and crime problem there? Will they move or drive to the BIG city to find work? This relates to my prediction of the "rich" dystopian controlled urban centers surrounded by the poor unwashed masses in the lawless outlands.

Just sayin'
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I have similar thoughts. I've driven through a lot of small towns that tried up when the mill work moved to China. The folks that were young enough pick up a new trade moved away, leaving behind their family and their community ties. The folks that couldn't or wouldn't move away picked up a job at a gas station or at Subway. But only so many of those to go around. There are a lot of towns in NC that 25 years ago were busy places with families and jobs that are now virtual ghost towns.

A lot of those folks turned to drugs in alcohol when the only life they knew was pulled out from under them so that someone else could make a quick buck on it.

I'm not completely anti-automation, but I understand that its going to have the same effect as shipping jobs off to China. Some folks will move to new jobs, new industries, or even new towns in search of work. Some will be left with nothing.
 
RedneckFur said:
I have similar thoughts. I've driven through a lot of small towns that tried up when the mill work moved to China. The folks that were young enough pick up a new trade moved away, leaving behind their family and their community ties. The folks that couldn't or wouldn't move away picked up a job at a gas station or at Subway. But only so many of those to go around. There are a lot of towns in NC that 25 years ago were busy places with families and jobs that are now virtual ghost towns.

A lot of those folks turned to drugs in alcohol when the only life they knew was pulled out from under them so that someone else could make a quick buck on it.

I'm not completely anti-automation, but I understand that its going to have the same effect as shipping jobs off to China. Some folks will move to new jobs, new industries, or even new towns in search of work. Some will be left with nothing.
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We used to travel between Charlotte and Fayetteville back in the early sixties to see my grandfolks when I was a little fella, and there were empty mills in those little towns along the way even then so this trend, sad as it is, is not new.
 
This thread evokes Route 66 & the Eisenhower Interstate System -- as the New & Improved highway system developed, towns that had thrived along Rte 66 faded and some outright died. As someone who has made a substantial part of his living making stuff outta wood, I understand all too well how impossible it is to compete with machinery and automation. Can I make a table using only hand tools? Yep. Can I sell it for the same price Joe Schmo's Funiturarium and Importer can, and still eat? Nope.

It's a sad fact of life that change happens, and that some adapt while others... not so much or so well. Like it or not, technological advance is inevitable. Until it isn't, and then we'll have a whole 'nother set of problems. (To which some will adapt better and others will become the evening meal.)

There is something to be said against political decisions that gut an industry or forty, i.e. NAFTA. In such cases, the jobs aren't being lost to technological advancement, they're lost to cheaper labor in 3rd world countries with Zero safety and cleanliness laws, with rarely a drop in retail prices. I have very mixed feelings about "solutions" to this "problem," but I certainly recognize teh issue as The Shaft for American workers.
 
RedneckFur said:
I don't think we're really going to see the impact of automation until they come up with self driving trucks that are reliable, relatively safe, and cheaper than employing a human driver. Once that happens, you're going to see nearly 4 million people loose their jobs in a short period of time.

That's 4 million guys, many of whom only have a high school education, and are supporting a family with their work. Can't really send them down to the cubicle farm and have them write code.
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The company my wife works for is in the process of working on this. The biggest hurdle has been "the last mile". The automated "drivers" can't improvise side access roads, backing to loading docks etc. The bulk of the technology already exists in Europe.
 
Me. said:
If you're interested in the topic, read "Who Moved My Cheese?". The book is good (and very short).
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I haven't thought about that little book in years. VERY profound message.
 
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Windini said:
This thread evokes Route 66 & the Eisenhower Interstate System -- as the New & Improved highway system developed, towns that had thrived along Rte 66 faded and some outright died.
Click to expand...

Today, since it seems 90% of the population mindlessly follow their GPS everywhere, all it takes is the programmers making a small coding change in the way your GPS calculates the shortest highway route/distance between two points to accomplish the same thing. Intentionally or accidentally they could bias the behavior of millions of drivers . For sure, if they can reroute based on traffic, they can reroute for ANY REASON. Think of the ramifications of a totally trusted guide luring you past business X instead of business Y...like the ship wreckers of old luring sailors into the rocks for plunder.
 
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