I recently talked to an executive officer of a charity foundation and really appreciated their dedication to help disadvantaged people. However, what it really scares me is the growing trend of disadvantaged people. In U.S. since 2008 financial tsunami, U.S. manufacturing had recovered 75% while manufacturing employment only recovered 21%. NY Port longshoremen has declined 90% since peaking in 1960s. This is basically due to the replacement of humans by robots as in the recent issue of Time magazine. Robots basically replace human beings in routine jobs and robots' average cost is NT$22K per month and decreasing. Amazon bought Kiva Systems in 2012 to deploy numerous smart robots in its huge distribution centers. As predicted by MIT & Harvard economists, the future is doomed for all who perform routine jobs since robots now are so smart that they eliminate jobs much more than the jobs they create. Without any innovative government policy, the storm of social unrest and the gaping chasm between the rich and the poor is gathering day by day. Only the people with capital and non-replaceable skills can survive under the continuing threat of robotics. (Robotics does not refer to just physical robots, it also involves office automation, automatic ticketing, automatic transaction or anything that is routine or semi-routine.)
Roving robots in distribution cetners
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