Capitalism- The Future or The Past?

[Minor Axis]

More evidence and a question: Can Capitalism Survive with jobs quickly being replaced by robotics. What will the millions of unemployed do? Start a riot, a revolution?

Read: Newseek: Automation Threatens Jobs

From self-service checkout lines at the supermarket to industrial robots armed with saws and taught to carve up animal carcasses in slaughter-houses, these ever-more-intelligent machines are now not just assisting workers but actually kicking them out of their jobs.

Automation isn’t just affecting factory workers, either. Some law firms now use artificial intelligence software to scan and read mountains of legal documents, work that previously was performed by highly paid human lawyers.

“Robots continue to have an impact on blue-collar jobs, and white-collar jobs are under attack by microprocessors,” says Edward Leamer, an economics professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, a survey of the U.S. and California economies. Leamer says the recession permanently wiped out 2.5 million jobs. U.S. gross domestic product has climbed back to pre-recession levels, meaning we’re producing as much as before, only with 6 percent fewer workers. To be sure, robotics are not the only job killers out there, with outsourcing stealing far more gigs than automation.

Jeff Burnstein, president of the Robotics Industry Association, a trade group in Ann Arbor, Mich., argues that robots actually save U.S. jobs. His logic: companies that embrace automation might use fewer workers, but that’s still better than firing everyone and moving the work overseas.

Not included in the online link- Downsized: What other Jobs are at risk:
*Librarian: New Library in Chicago features robotic system for locating books.
*Bartender: Motoman Robotics sells a robot bartender called RoboBar.
*Taxi Driver: Google is trying to get permission from Las Vegas to test automated taxis.
*CALL GIRL: Got your attention? I doubt it's like Spielberg's A.I. pleasure bot, but Bell Labs developed Roxxy, a sex robot with lifelike skin and A.I. Check out the lips.
*Soldeirs: Lockheed Martin's MULE, a robotic fighting system.


Roxxy, made to please...