Will robots increase or decrease human employment
Answers
Answer:
Like most technology, in the longer term robots increase employment. The biggest users of robots per worker are Germany and South Korea, they both have very enviable manufacturing bases, generally good working conditions and rates of pay.
Robots are generally used in the most difficult dangerous and monotonous applications. These are things that robots excel at and people don’t. Many of the jobs “lost” to robots are deeply unpleasant. Robots are also essential For competitiveness, in many industries it is impossible to remain economic without robots.
Like all technology there is a double edge. Large companies that can afford robotics and automation can squeeze out smaller competitors. But as the cost of robots falls and installation gets easier smaller companies can leverage robots too. I have sold many robots to “one person” businesses and small companies with fewer than 10 employees, where the robot has not only allowed them to stay competitive but to rapidly expand as their costs decrease and production soars.
There are many parallels in many industries, robots are versatile and can be used in lots of applications but so can, for example, computers. Typing pools, slide rules, paper accountants and manual draftsmanship have all been displaced, jobs lost for ever. Has this ment the world is overall richer as costs have decreased and opportunity has opened up to anyone with a $100 computer? Yes. Could we ever put the genie of technology back in the bottle? Probably Not.
The world is far from perfect with huge challenges, especially climate change. But what we desperately need is the robot manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels, autonomous robots cleaning the seas and new technologies, yet to be invented, housing, protecting, feeding, and caring for the world.