Automation is coming

The biggest problem in the world today is  a lack of foresight into what the future holds. A fantastic example of this is is in the Factor's article, "TIME TO FACE UP TO REALITY AND STOP LOOKING FOR SCAPEGOATS: AUTOMATION IS COMING":

On the day of the 2016 US elections, when Americans up and down the country were queuing up to vote for Donald Trump, three experts on world affairs gathered at Web Summit to discuss the reality we now live in.

José Manuel Barroso, former president of the European Commission, former Prime Minister of Portugal and now the non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs, was joined by Roberto Azevêdo, director-general of the World Trade Organization, and Mogens Lykketoft, former president of the United Nations General Assembly and former Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs...

According to Azevêdo, the real source of our problems is staring us in the face; and it’s time we faced up to it.

“If we’re honest with each other and we look at the marketplace and we know what’s happening, it has nothing to do with trade,” he says.

“Two in 10 jobs that are lost in advanced economies today are due to trade and to imports. Eight out of 10 or more, it’s about new technologies, it’s about higher productivity, innovation.”

In summary, automation and other productivity gains are driving job losses and a lack of opportunities, and that isn’t something you can legislate against.

“Those things, you cannot fight them, you cannot be against them, you have to embrace them, you have to see that that is the future and to adapt and be ready for that,” urges Azevêdo, adding that there is far more to come.

“What are you going to do when you have a full-scale delivery of parcels by drones? Or when you have self-driven trucks delivering cargo?” he asked, adding that the first automated deliveries are already being made.

“Now in the US alone there are three and a half million truck drivers. Those guys are going to lose their jobs and it’s not only them, it’s all the roadside assistance, hotels, cafes, restaurants, service stations. What you going to do with all those people?

“Now don’t tell me a few years from now that you didn’t know this was going to happen. This is going to happen. And what do you do, how do you handle that?” 

If you need to understand why neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton offered real solutions in the last election, re-read that quote above. So while the Left is wasting its time trying to paint Trump as some kind of Russian-loving white nationalist, and the Right is working on expanding the government in the wrong direction, neither political side is prepared for the big change coming. Since the economy is made to protect the wealthy, the next elections will see more and more people losing their jobs and looking for new solutions. As history has foretold, it is only a matter of time before democracy falls to dictatorship.