There is nothing profound in this article. This is not the first announcement by a company offering humanoid robots. And that is the issue I want to discuss today.
The fact that these types of announcements are becoming commonplace means we are getting much closer to the next mass wave of job losses. But unlike Britains northern coal mines, Canada's cod fisheries and their tar sands oil workers this will affect people across hundreds of industries globally and at the same time. The miners, fishers and oil workers job losses were each separated by decades and only affected a subset of the population, albeit while devastating local economies.
We know this next wave is coming and it will be fueled by companies needs(desires) to reduce costs and improve efficiency as well as robotics and related companies with deep investor pockets seeing huge profits.
But with so many workers who will be left without a job anywhere in their industry we will face a global economic and social downturn. Modern countries who look after their people will find their social programs taxed to the limit while more backward countries will see huge increases in homelessness and the crimes of survival that come with it.
This can be avoided.
Smart governments need to start investing in retraining programs, entrepreneuship courses and very strong marketing campaigns.
