Cheaper Robots, Fewer Workers (Video and Article)

NY Times ^ | 4/24/15 | Jonah M. Kessel and Taige Jensen

[Enlightened1]

China faces rising labor costs and a shortage of workers. But a government project called “replacing humans with robots” is trying to change the face of the work force in Guangdong Province.

[Enlightened1]

[Enlightened1]

Here is the link with the video and article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/technology/robotica-cheaper-robots-fewer-workers.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

[ansel12]

a government project called “replacing humans with robots”

Don't they do PC in China? Shouldn't that be something like "The Human Leisure Time Liberation Project"?

[Wolfie]

Hey, we all know people with no means of making a living just quietly go away. What could go wrong?

[Cvengr]

Still need to maintain our Mechanical Overlords, the robots.

[Rusty0604]

How is it they have a shortage of workers? Is it like our shortage which really isn’t?

[Old Teufel Hunden]

[ansel12]

I support robots and automation, but the starkness of the (translated) language was surprising.

a government project called “replacing humans with robots”

[Wolfie]

If we can teach the robots to buy stuff, it might all work out.

[ansel12]

Why?

If you want to kill an economy and human advancement, then freeze all work in place today, whenever “today” is, and keep humans doing work they don’t need to be doing.

On which day do we end work place automation and freeze progression, 1840, 1880, 1910, 1940, or 1950, 1980, 2010, upon reading this article in 2015?

[Organic Panic]

“If you see it when you go to a bank you use the ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport and you use a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate,” -Barry Obama lamenting automation.

[ansel12]

Like when you see a congressman looking baffled at elevator buttons, as he wonders where the uniformed operator is.

[Borges]

The market self corrects for that.

[ClearCase_guy]

I'm pretty sure that the Power Elite want to trim back the population so that all the right people live on 100 acre estates, with a full complement of robot staff to wait on them and trim their gardens -- while the cities are populated with an elite society of boffins who keep exploring advanced technology and basically keep things moving forward. There will be no poor people. Total US population? 20 million or so.

It's just a question of more automation and more population control. By whatever means necessary.

[SunkenCiv]

That makes sense, the Chinese haven't had success trying to build stuff cheaper in other countries (in Latin America, Africa) to feed their home market.