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Politics : The Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dracin72 who wrote (15744)	4/22/2017 12:53:01 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 365155

One thing is that the dividing line isn't between white and blue collar exactly. As an example, a substantial portion of the job of a hospital radiologist can be done better by computers, even today. My last optometrist did the eye exam almost as an after thought. Before you ever saw the guy they had precisely determined the correct lenses for you while you sat at a machine. Apple built a data center a while back in North Carolina which at the time was one of the largest in the world, I think it is currently approaching 600,000 square feet. Last I heard they had FIFTY full time employees, not all of which are professionals, presumably. FIFTY employees won't hand a good sized restaurant. So, blue collar jobs are going to be rough. But a not insignificant number of white collar jobs are being replaced by smarter technology. That said, there are still jobs for COBOL programmers and probably will be for some time to come. I think it is really hard to see who is going to be hit hardest or how soon that will happen. I have it on good authority that we are going to see rollouts of serious, long-term changes in labor situations starting at the Summer '17. This is from someone who is well-positioned to know what is going on. I think it will be eye-opening if it happens.

To: Dracin72 who wrote (15744)	4/22/2017 12:07:58 PM
From: combjelly	Respond to of 365155

Not everyone wants to be a doctor, computer programmer, scholar etc. Even if they have the capacity, this still applies. As you note, this is the heart of the problem. I don't think it is insolvable, but it will require a major restructuring. So far, we have managed because automation has always opened new opportunities. But, even so, there have been those who couldn't adapt. Those we have been sweeping under the rug. But what happens when that rug lump encompasses a major percentage of the population? It is like the wealth imbalance. The situation isn't stable, These are the sort of things that lead to revolutions if not outright societal collapse. It isn't something that can safely be ignored.