R
rdean
Guest
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Experts warn that this "hollowing out" of the middle-class workforce is far from over. They predict the loss of millions more jobs as technology becomes even more sophisticated and reaches deeper into our lives.
Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles iPhones at factories in China, unveiled plans in 2011 to install one million robots over three years.
A recent headline in the China Daily newspaper: "Chinese robot wars set to erupt."
Occupations that provided middle-class lifestyles for generations can disappear in a few years. Utility meter readers are just one example. As power companies began installing so-called smart readers outside homes, the number of meter readers in the U.S. plunged from 56,000 in 2001 to 36,000 in 2010, according to the Labor Department.
In 10 years? That number is expected to be zero.
AP: Recession, Tech Kill Middle-Class Jobs | News | Manufacturing.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Clearly, these facts fly in the face of Republican Economic policy. More and more cuts to education ensure future Americans won't be able to compete. Refusing to invest in infastructure will have an even more develstating effect.
Robots need to be installed. They need maintenence and programming. The Republican efforts to redistribute the wealth of the nation to the top 1% doesn't ensure the "job creators" will create jobs. Instead, they will build robots.
All that wasted effort to get the wealth of the nation to the top 1% and clearly, ignorant and uneducated Republicans will never be hired. They merely sow the seeds of their own destruction.
For America to compete, you simply do the opposite of what Republicans imagine will work.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Experts warn that this "hollowing out" of the middle-class workforce is far from over. They predict the loss of millions more jobs as technology becomes even more sophisticated and reaches deeper into our lives.
Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles iPhones at factories in China, unveiled plans in 2011 to install one million robots over three years.
A recent headline in the China Daily newspaper: "Chinese robot wars set to erupt."
Occupations that provided middle-class lifestyles for generations can disappear in a few years. Utility meter readers are just one example. As power companies began installing so-called smart readers outside homes, the number of meter readers in the U.S. plunged from 56,000 in 2001 to 36,000 in 2010, according to the Labor Department.
In 10 years? That number is expected to be zero.
AP: Recession, Tech Kill Middle-Class Jobs | News | Manufacturing.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Clearly, these facts fly in the face of Republican Economic policy. More and more cuts to education ensure future Americans won't be able to compete. Refusing to invest in infastructure will have an even more develstating effect.
Robots need to be installed. They need maintenence and programming. The Republican efforts to redistribute the wealth of the nation to the top 1% doesn't ensure the "job creators" will create jobs. Instead, they will build robots.
All that wasted effort to get the wealth of the nation to the top 1% and clearly, ignorant and uneducated Republicans will never be hired. They merely sow the seeds of their own destruction.
For America to compete, you simply do the opposite of what Republicans imagine will work.
