this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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How about no and instead we focus on automation?
Why not both?
Because we could produce European middle-class living standards for everyone with 70% unemployment, and that's with the automation potential of 10-15 years ago. Think nice apartment, washing machine, dishwasher, gaming PC, healthy food, education, healthcare, probably no car but proper public transit, all included in UBI.
The reason it's not happening is because there's very little investment in it, not because the ROI wouldn't be high but because it's very long-term. In the short to mid-term it's way cheaper to outsource jobs to a low-wage country somewhere.
And, of course, tech only became better. We now e.g. have the tech to do automatic QC, proper visual inspection no worse than the human kind, allowing a system to say "yep that's chatter marks let's sort that piece out, mill #32, you need new tooling, shut down until maintenance drone #21 fetched you a new endmill from storage". In other words automated factories can now self-diagnose and self-maintain to a significant degree, at least to an "everyday problems" one.
I'd say even if the overall efficiency ends up lower with automation (not that you're saying that or that it's true) I'd say it's still the right course.
If we in developed countries are saying that working in a factory is degrading and inhumane work, then it's not much of a solution to offload it to a country with people desperate enough to do it anyway. It doesn't solve the problem if we get our own people to do it either, by incentive or otherwise.
The aim should be that no one is stuck doing degrading, unfulfilling work. If automation fails to be as efficient than human labour, be it in the short term or long term, and whether that be in terms of profit or resources, it's still worth it to minimise the number of people stuck in unfulfilling wage slavery.
Again, to emphasise the point, even if human hands are cheaper than automation for the next hundred years, we should still drive to automation.
That being said, this all assumes we get our shit together as a society to get UBI and other ways for people to live meaningful lives without the factory work!
Factory jobs aren't inherently unfulfilling or degrading. There are bad jobs and good ones like any other field. Generally, factory jobs actually pay pretty well for the amount of education required.
Good point! I did mean to acknowledge this. I don't mean to say factory work is necessarily unfulfilling by nature. We should be looking to automate all unfulfilling jobs away where we can, factory or otherwise. I'd guess factory work is often more fulfilling than the range of white collar bullshit jobs ("B" ark type stuff 😜) where there's no sense of really doing anything of value. I suspect though a lot of the unfulfilling white collar bullshit work does require automation replace, but we can just stop making people do pretend work just to be able to live! (I say this confident of my ticket on the "B" ark myself!)
I would say however, how well they're paid isn't the whole picture thought. If there are nasty jobs that need doing, we should at least make sure they pay well, but better that all have fulfilling and well paid jobs, rather than sacrificial one for the other. Utopian/idealistic I know, but if I'm going to be dreaming might as well dream big! 😁
I don't know my Marx, but doesn't he have a thing about factory work being by it's nature dehumanising due to its focus on being just one tiny part of making something, rather than the craftsman it replaced. I think there's something to be said for that, and where we can accepting that while a production line may be strictly more efficient than craftsman, that efficiency isn't everything all the time. (Again using factory analogy here but the same comparison can be made of various "white collar" jobs too).
Oh I should also say, that I can imagine the full automation of some jobs being bad for similar reasons, even if it might seem like a win. If there is joy to be found in, for example, the work of a making furniture by hand, then I can see it being a negative to fully automate that job away, even if we can ensure every furniture maker isn't affected financially by the loss of the jobs. There's something of value in the feeling of performing ones craft in the equitable service of someone else, and if we have machines making the furniture the same, then we risk robbing people of that.
No simple answers I guess! Balance in everything, everything in balance and all that.
Assuming both means more jobs at the factory which suggests more labor involvements and automation in the process of manufacturing, I would advocate against the former until we have universal healthcare and stronger safety standards and laws.