Foxconn replaces '60,000 factory workers with robots

[TheLegendaryWolf]

ohmylanta1003 said:

Zkuq said:

I don't think it's the companies' problem to worry about social issues. Ideally they would think about things like that, but I doubt they will. Social responsibility is something companies aiming to maximize profits aren't very eager to consider. We should also remember that the actions of each company alone won't be enough, it's the actions of all the companies that matter. If a lot of other companies are going to replace workers with robots, it will be very hard for any single company to not replace their workers with robots because human workers cost more in the long run. The environment will pressure the companies into robotization unless governments interfere, and I don't think they're going to be very eager to do that with all the lobbying.

I don't think there's any realistic way to fight robotization. You'd need to get practically every government in the world to agree to prevent robotization, and that's just not going to happen. Robots will replace human workers in the near future, and we need to learn how to cope with it. It will be painful but I doubt there's much we can do about it. It'll be easiest if we simply accept it and come up with ideas to cope with it.

The problem is that we keep on saying that these people are being replaced by robots. For some reason, the word robot scares people. What we really mean to say is that these workers jobs are being automated. We've been automating monotonous processes for literally centuries. Why stop now? Why would people or the government want to stop this progression? Why would we fight this?

Because the population has increased at an exceeding rate in under 100 years and unlike then, people can't go back to living and eating from their own crops. Where will these millions of "basic" work move on to? Robotic repairs? Nope, they won't hire someone without experience. Go to college? Nope, unless the government provides it for free to all citizens it'll be impossible for the now jobless to afford.  Iv'e seen a few people drop off the idea o free living wage for everyone, but where will that money come from? I just can't see how more automated machines sending more people onto the unemployment line than ever before could be seen as a positive unless we take another big technology jump. I'm not talking about holograms and flying cars, I'm talking about turning deserts and tundras into hospitable land, interstellar travel, and planetary terraforming and colonization.