Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for August 2, 2017
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
August 2, 2017: As robotics and other forms of automation mature in the coming years, a massive shift is expected to take place in the workforce. Research conducted by the Oxford Martin School estimates that 86 percent of food service jobs are at high risk of being automated by 2030. So are 75 percent of transportation and warehousing jobs; 67 percent of real estate, rental, and leasing jobs; 67 percent of retail jobs; and 62 percent of manufacturing jobs.[1]
Estimates like these have caused some groups and individuals, such as the American Enterprise Institute, to speculate a wave of mass unemployment in the coming years.[2] However, concerns about automation are nothing new. A 1961 article in Time magazine reported that a rise in unemployment at that time “raised some new alarms around an old scare word: automation.” The article noted that, while the causes of the increased unemployment were not clear, “many a labor expert tends to put much of the blame on automation.”[3]
In fact, nearly 500 years ago, Queen Elizabeth I refused to provide patent protection for an automated knitting machine. The Queen said she had “too much regard for the poor women and unprotected young maidens who obtain their daily bread by knitting to forward an invention which, by depriving them of employment, would reduce them to starvation.”[4]
There continues to be a link between public policy and issues of automation. Edward Rensi, a former CEO of McDonald’s, said, “I guarantee you if a $15 minimum wage goes across the country you’re going to see a job loss like you can’t believe.” He argued that “it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries.”[5]
Others disagree. The president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has said, “This robot thing is a way to distract taxpayers who are underwriting the low wages of these multinational corporations.”[5]
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
- August 1, 2017 – 4 U.S. presidents in last 100 years improved their party's electoral strength
- July 31, 2017 – 15% increase in top hospitals' revenue during first two years of Obamacare
- July 28, 2017 – 66 of the nation’s 100 largest cities allow homesharing with minimal regulation
- July 27, 2017 – 15 million Americans would opt out of Obamacare coverage if they could
- July 26, 2017 – 15.3% of U.S. workforce on the government payroll
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Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ The Wall Street Journal, "Robots Are Replacing Workers Where You Shop," July 19, 2017
- ↑ AEI Ideas, "Meeting the rise of the robots: Mass unemployment or mass redeployment?" January 13, 2017
- ↑ Time Magazine, "Business: The Automation Jobless," February 24, 1961
- ↑ Quartz, "The optimist’s guide to the robot apocalypse," March 9, 2017
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Washington Post, "Ex-McDonald’s CEO says raising the minimum wage will help robots take jobs," May 25, 2016
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