"Dave Hall" wrote in message
...
snip
Dave, read the whole thing a few times - before you reply.

I would have to agree. The way they make cars these days, it doesn't
matter
very much if the guys on the line are getting
$8 an hour or a decent, living wage.

Being competitive today is more about robotics and automation than
whether the
workforce has been hired for the lowest conceivable dollar. There aren't
as
many man hours in a car as just several years ago.


Which brings up an interesting hypothetical question. If we were to
"automate" all manufacturing, distribution, and information 100%, what
would we have left for the American worker to do?

You did not go far enough, what *can't* be automated? Think hard. Any job
that can be conducted over a telephone can be automated. Fifty years ago,
most people would have had trouble seeing how a bank teller would be
replaced with an ATM. Doctor Tooth can (and will) be replaced by a robot and
a token low paid nurse. Cars *will* drive themselves - kiss your fall-back
truck driver job goodbye. It is *very* hard to think of a job that can't be
automated; certainly there are not enough of these jobs for everybody!

The answer would probably be a good career choice for a high school
senior to contemplate.

Dave


Excellent grasshopper - you have taken your first small step towards
enlightenment! I am actually very surprised that you were able to think of
this. It is such a *long* way from your usually Pollyanna "the free market
will fix everything" stand on every issue.

I asked this same question in the mid 70's as I first realized the awesome
power of embedded microprocessors combined with Moore's curve.

As you grapple with the question you just asked, you may slowly come to
understand that the current system will *have* to lead to massive numbers of
unemployed and underemployed. Nobody works as cheap as a $0.10 chip. Not
even the third world; things will *have* to change in some fundamental way.
We can't all be programmers. See if you are able to draw the path from the
reduction of traditional jobs to where we *must* go. It could lead to very
good places, or complete chaos.The most important question is "will this
change be under control, or will it be thrust upon us?" If we steer towards
where we want to go, we may actually get there. If our only tiller is greed
and competition, we *will* go to compete anarchy. The first step down the
wrong path is stratification of society into a few rich, and the rest very
poor. The currently shrinking middle class is a very ominous sign.

Think about it for about twenty years and you may finally see why I am a
liberal. As you ponder this, think about what I keep saying over and over:
"When the poor of our society do better, we all do better".

Mark Browne
P.S. Teachers will become *much* more important and valued in the future -
think 1 to 1 teacher / student ratio. Think through what that would mean to
the USAs position in the high tech and creative writing/theater/music/arts
arena. Think about why I identified these as the most important areas for
human endeavors.