What To Do About The Long-Term Implications of Automation

Self-Driving Trucks Are Going to Hit Us Like a Human-Driven Truck
The imminent need for basic income in recognition of our machine-driven future

Late last year, I took a road trip with my partner from our home in New Orleans, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida and as we drove by town after town, we got to talking about the potential effects self-driving vehicle technology would have not only on truckers themselves, but on all the local economies dependent on trucker salaries. Once one starts wondering about this kind of one-two punch to America’s gut, one sees the prospects aren’t pretty.

We are facing the decimation of entire small town economies, a disruption the likes of which we haven’t seen since the construction of the interstate highway system itself bypassed entire towns. If you think this may be a bit of hyperbole… let me back up a bit and start with this:

Most common job in each state:


This is a map of the most common job in each US state in 2014.

It should be clear at a glance just how dependent the American economy is on truck drivers. According to the American Trucker Association, there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the US, and an additional 5.2 million people employed within the truck-driving industry who don’t drive the trucks. That’s 8.7 million trucking-related jobs.

We can’t stop there though, because the incomes received by these 8.2 million people create the jobs of others. Those 3.5 million truck drivers driving all over the country stop regularly to eat, drink, rest, and sleep. Entire businesses have been built around serving their wants and needs. Think restaurants and motels as just two examples. So now we’re talking about millions more whose employment depends on the employment of truck drivers. But we still can’t even stop there.

Those working in these restaurants and motels along truck-driving routes are also consumers within their own local economies. Think about what a server spends her paycheck and tips on in her own community, and what a motel maid spends from her earnings into the same community. That spending creates other paychecks in turn. So now we’re not only talking about millions more who depend on those who depend on truck drivers, but we’re also talking about entire small town communities full of people who depend on all of the above in more rural areas. With any amount of reduced consumer spending, these local economies will shrink.

One further important detail to consider is that truck drivers are well-paid. They provide a middle class income of about $40,000 per year. That’s a higher income than just about half (46%) of all tax filers, including those of married households. They are also greatly comprised by those without college educations. Truck driving is just about the last job in the country to provide a solid middle class salary without requiring a post-secondary degree. Truckers are essentially the last remnant of an increasingly impoverished population once gainfully employed in manufacturing before those middle income jobs were mostly all shipped overseas.

If we now step back and look at the big national picture, we are potentially looking at well over 10 million American workers and their families whose incomes depend entirely or at least partially on the incomes of truck drivers, all of whom markedly comprise what is left of the American middle class... continue -> https://medium.com/basic-income/sel...hit-us-like-a-human-driven-truck-b8507d9c5961

The geeks in the Silicon Valley and at Google, Amazon, etc are a bigger threat than the Chi-Coms or Russia Russia Russia.

Children are incharge of America's future today.

TIL new Google employees are called 'nooglers' and are given a propeller beanie cap to wear on their first Friday.

This isn't fake news it's real !!!
And the Hollywood Left confirmed it.

 

All doom and gloom? Yes, we have, or will soon have, the technology to automate many things. The big question ignored above is the reality when it might be implemented? Self-driving vehicles have potential, but implementation is decades away. Today we can fly a jet liner with 400 passengers without a pilot...but will we?

BTW; geeks are not a threat to anyone?? Those who research and create technology are typically not the ones to implement it society.

Technology and innovation and automation bring great potential to society...instead of fearing it...embrace it...

 

An old flame of mine while sitting next to her new boyfriend said "My boyfriend flies a Boeing 757."

I said "My son flies a FA-18 fighter except he's actually flying the FA-18 while a computer is flying your boyfriend's Boeing 757."

Another bubble popped.

 

To be fair, the F/A-18, as well as most high-performance jets today, incorporate computer controls that provide computer-assisted handling qualities and maneuverability. I remember reading a few years ago about one of the fighter jets where they said the jet was unflyable without computers. I think it's a good thing because it allows the pilot to focus on things they control...

 

The left understands that socialism is about equality not just lucre. Simply resorting to Capitalism means capital must circulate.

Solving for socio-economic phenomena makes rational sense.

Simple poverty is one example.

Capitalism has a (poverty inducing) natural rate of unemployment that places the burden on the Individual.

Compensation for Capitalism's natural rate of unemployment makes rational, capital sense.

 

On a long term basis, States like California should harness industrial automation to actually generate revenue from recycling and reclamation.