But why continue? Things have gotten better...for higher ups and that's about it. I didn't say there's nothing wrong with progression. Please find the sentence where I claimed such a stupid claim. Nothing is wrong with anything for a while but continue to do it and eventually problems show up. Yeah you can keep "progressing" but there's a point where going forwards is actually going backwards. That's life, that's the economy...because of silly things like this that continue to go on. It didn't have to happen this way. FIrst you say the workers wanted out then you say that's life...which one? Sure there's nothing wrong with using oil and gas and burning fossil fuels...for a while but now we have global warming, parts of the world completely melting. It isn't magic, it's science. There's a recation to every decision we make.

We may not see it immediately, because of course that's human nature. Worry when it gets bad, not beforehand. I think over the long term. this is just the beginning, automation is just the beginning. Soon they'll make robots that fix the robots too won't they? That's progression after all, then there will be no workers at all. Oh, then there will be robots that work on those robots that work on those robots right? Progression of course! But where are the humans? Losing their purpose? We need to stick together as a race. You may think I'm going overboard here and to an extent I am, but many predictions were made in many pieces of literature and many of them have come to pass. Robots taking over everything may seem like a silly fiction book but if we continue on this path, this is exactly what will happen in terms of employment. And the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will be poorer. You're looking too small, through only one viewpoint and it isn't that simple. Foxconn is only the tip of the iceberg.

Wait, I thought this was what people wanted? Weren't these people enslaved? Now they are free!!! Foxconn freed its slaves guys! :D

It is perfectly possible that it would take longer to happen, enought time for people to slowly transfer to other jobs that can't be done by robots. Making it happen all at once is bad because of the concept of price elasticity of supply ( http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Competitive_markets/Price_elasticity_of_supply.html )

Well it is slave labour, but in this case you are not enslaving a sentient being with psychological, emotional, physical and financial needs that are undervalued and unmet by the work conditions of these factories. You are enslaving a mindless machine that will work until it breaks where the only repercussions of breaking is lost productivity.

The world needs to automate shitty, mindless, oppressive jobs and educate people so they can engage in personally fulfilling work.

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.

I know. Everyone complains about these people's working conditions. People are appalled that our iPhones are made by basically slaves and it's been an incredibly controversial talking point for years. And now that these people are being replaced, most people on this website have a problem with it? You guys are seriously fucked up.

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?

Good. Robots should do pointless, repetitive labor.

Humans should be trained (free education) to use their far superior intellect to do something better.

"Der tek ti dei!!!"

I realize all of that. And my point was not to turn companies into wellfare (although I would prefer slower and more healthy growth rates and less profit with more reinvestments). I'm saying they should worry about this for their own sake, because no consumer base equals no profit in the long run.

If they were smart they would do their business diffrently.

I don't think we even need to fight robotization. Robotization could be potentially awesome. But it also means that companies will have to be prepared to pay out insanely high wages for relatively few working hours, as multiple people will probably have to share the same job position, or a small amount of working people will have to earn enough to pay enough taxes to provide for the unemployed masses.

You can't really take companies out of the equation and expect the state to fix everything. Where is the tax money to care for society supposed to come from when the majority of people is umemployed? Without companies to pay wages and those wages getting redistributed by taxes and retranslated into spending power no state can properly function. And for that matter, neither can any business. At least not with our current system.

And while a few new job opporunities will certainly pop up with robotization, that won't nearly be enough to cover the new unemployment rates.

(I personally see handcafts having sort of a renaissance for a while, with wealthy people paying good money for quality handcrafted stuff. And we'll probaby see a surge of 'young creatives' leading to a total oversaturation of that market [wich as an illistrator honestly scares the crap out of me. ]).

So countries will eventually have to find a system to get to the riches of the upper 10% and distributing it down to the masses. (wich will be interesting since thise upper 10% also happen to have enormous political influence and are not likely to part with their money willingly.) It would be in the businesses own interest if they would help with that.