Robots replacing human factory workers at faster pace

[FLPanhandle]

Source: LA Times

Cheaper, better robots will replace human workers in the world's factories at a faster pace over the next decade, pushing manufacturing labor costs down 16 percent, a report Tuesday said.

The Boston Consulting Group predicts that investment in industrial robots will grow 10 percent a year in the world's 25-biggest export nations through 2025, up from 2 percent to 3 percent a year now. The investment will pay off in lower costs and increased efficiency. Robots will cut labor costs by 33 percent in South Korea, 25 percent in Japan, 24 percent in Canada and 22 percent in the United States and Taiwan. Only 10 percent of jobs that can be automated have already been taken by robots. By 2025, the machines will have more than 23 percent, Boston Consulting forecasts.

Robots are getting cheaper. The cost of owning and operating a robotic spot welder, for instance, has tumbled from $182,000 in 2005 to $133,000 last year, and will drop to $103,000 by 2025, Boston Consulting says.

In a separate report, RBC Global Asset Management notes that robots can be reprogrammed far faster and more efficiently than humans can be retrained when products are updated or replaced — a crucial advantage at a time when smartphones and other products quickly fade into obsolescence.



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-robots-jobs-20150211-story.html

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Maybe Robot repair and programming is a good line of work to go into.

[yorgatron]

1. in other news; nobody can buy anything anymore because they don't have jobs.

[C Moon]

7. That's what I was thinking.

[project_bluebook]

2. Futurists predictions back in the 40's & 50's that robots were going to do all the work

while humans kicked back and enjoyed life never materialized. Not in a world run by greed and unfettered capitalism. Mass poverty will be our so called utopia

[RKP5637]

4. That, is exactly what is going to happen if we maintain the current course. n/t

[FLPanhandle]

9. This is the only robot that has come close

It only works for us because we have all hard wood floors but it does wonders.

[project_bluebook]

11. Very true

Plus it drives the dog nuts

[AtheistCrusader]

16. And the Cat/Shark can use it to chase the duck.

[Bosonic]

3. It's just beginning

[Journeyman]

5. Fortunately, the items we won't be able to afford will be cheaper . . .

[littlewolf]

6. Automated ports in Rotterdam.

[GreatGazoo]

8. Agriculture is also getting into robots

Pruning vineyards 12 hours a day

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/03/post_198.html

Nurseries:

[Trillo]

10. So in the build up to this, say, at the second Industrial revolution,

governments gave to bankers the ability to create money out of thin air.

Now that the machines are replacing us, will governments give the unemployed the ability to create money out of thin air? Perhaps government should reserve that creation for itself, and send all of us a minimum guaranteed income check.

[killbotfactory]

12. cool. that means we can all work less. right?

Right... ?

...

[Thor_MN]

13. MLK warned of this...

[DavidDvorkin]

14. The civilized result would be

for nations to tax all forms of wealth and use the money to pay all citizens a good minimum stipend.

The alternative is something like Elysium.

[Nihil]

18. No prizes for guessing which is more likely. (n/t)

[Newest Reality]

15. When the heads come out of the sand...

Robotics are a technological revolution that is presenting the next wave of automation and it has momentum.

While robotics have been with us for a long time, as is pointed out by newer articles, the new generations of robots are more sophisticated, cheaper and more flexible, while decreasing in size for some applications.

Along with the sweeping economic inequality that is impacting much of the world, we have a new contender now. Robotics will present a social challenge that will either bring about a rethinking of economics and work in general, or lead to an even more polarized economy where larger numbers of people will find work scarce, and livable wages even scarcer.

So, as this threshold approaches, we can at least find more footing and leverage in bringing this conversation to the foreground. The implications lead us to challenge the current corporate and right-wing views of work, income and the viability of citizens in relation to the basic rights of food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities, and to what degree they will be available to growing numbers of people that are destined to become economically obsolete in the wake of an exponential growth in automation for the foreseeable future.

There are potential solutions, but bringing them to light for debate in this climate and culture is extremely difficult no matter how serious the issues are.

[DeSwiss]

17. K&R

[AngryAmish]

19. When John Henry was a little baby....