Digital Tonto: Are computers really the problem?
In the United States, with the political season in full swing, we hear a lot about outsourcing. Good jobs, the kind where people wear hardhats and safety glasses, are moving south and east, supposedly leaving a nation of hamburger flippers in their wake.
Politicians of all stripes say they will bring the jobs back. Some promise to batter China, while others pledge to create new industries that will provide honest work for millions of Rosie the Riveters and Bob the Builders.
But what if those jobs are replaced by robots? As The Economist reports, we are in the midst of a third industrial revolution. Whereas, before a factory could hire thousands of people, today most employ a small fraction of that number. When billions of dollars of output can be generated by just a few employees, the nature of work changes drastically.