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Naomi M. Springer
English 12th/Economics
Ms.Burnett/ Mr. Okamoto
Period 1/ Period 6
11 November, 2014

Human Labor vs. Machines

The world of the future will be an even more demanding struggle against the limitations
of our intelligence, not a comfortable hammock in which we can lie down to be waited upon by
our robot slaves. said Norbert Wiener, The Human Use Of Human Beings: Cybernetics And
Society. As technology increases in workplaces more workers are getting laid off and
unemployment rate increases. But companies that create technology believe that Technology
creates job more than takes jobs. Human Labor is diminishing due to the advancement of
technology. To reduce Unemployment, the government needs to make a balance between human
labor and technology.
As Technology becomes more efficient, slowly industrial jobs are disappearing. Jobs are
being taken over by technology isnt a recent issue that unemployment is facing. According to
this article The End of Labor: How to Protect Workers From the Rise of Robots by Smith
Noah who is an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University said, The fears of
Luddites, who tried to prevent the spread of technology out of fear of losing their jobs, proved
unfounded. But that was then, and this is now. Recent technological advances in the area of
computers and automation have begun to do some higher cognitive tasks - think of robots

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building cars, stocking groceries, doing your taxes. This quote means that Luddites who were
British textile workers in the 19th century forewarned by protesting that new labor-replacing
machines was going to take over jobs. Now the problem is growing as robots builds car and
stocking groceries. Once was a small problem in the 19th century, is now a huge problem
happening thats raising structural unemployment. From this article Nine Jobs that Human may
lose to robots" by Aquino Judith who is a trainee at Business Insider. She graduated from New
York University with an M.A. in journalism. Aquino claimed that In 2013 there will be 1.2
million industrial robots working worldwide -- that's one robot for every 5,000 people, according
to Marshall Brain, founder of How Stuff Works and author of Robotic Nation." (Aquino) This
shows that robots and other technology being used for workplaces have expanded dramatically.
People are losing their job and it will continue to increase deflation in the economy. As robots
replace workers in industrial jobs this not only affects the factory. It also affects the number of
jobs available because now humans have competition with machine. In this article "How
Technology Is Destroying" by Rotman David who wrote about Eric Brynjolfsson who is a
professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Brynjolfsson said, Productivity is at record
levels, innovation has never been faster, and yet at the same time, we have a falling median
income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling behind because technology is advancing so
fast and our skills and organizations arent keeping up.(Rotman) This means that Creation of
new technology is going in extremely rapid pace. That has a bad effect to median income and
leaves organizations little options on what to do with workers. Not only this rapid growth of
technology is affecting industrial jobs but also jobs have that required someone who went to
college for that specific job. The Growth of Machines taking over jobs was noticed in 1960s.

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How Technology Is Destroying by David Rotman, Brynjolfsson made graphs showing

the increase of automation. From 1960-2011 the bar chart showed how machines is used more in
factories over the years in developed countries US, Japan and Germany. The second chart means
the huge gap between GDP and Household income. The third chart means thats 320 thousand
robots was sold the past two years. The agricultural is less than industrial and service. (Rotman)

The charts showed how the increase of technology is not decreasing. Different type of jobs is
being taken over by machines.

The outcome of Jobs that been taken over by machines and Applications.
Judith Aquino claims Lawyers and paralegals, instead of paying an army of lawyers and
paralegals to review documents, software can do the job in a fraction of the time for a fraction of

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the cost.( Aquino) She also said A Pharmacists, The UCSF Medical Center recently launched
an automated, robotics-controlled pharmacy at two UCSF hospitals. Once computers at the new
pharmacy electronically receive medication orders from UCSF physicians and pharmacists, the
robotics pick, package, and dispense individual doses of pills. (Aquino) Its troubling to find
out that technology not only taking over by industrial jobs but also educated careers like lawyers
and pharmacists. Whats going to happen to young college students that are currently studying
for a major that just going to be replacing by technology. The college students are looking for
the government for answers. But the government is not helping to find a solution for this
problem. From an book The end of work by Rifkin Jeremy is the bestselling author of books on
the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy. He claims that, No one is
dealing with the real employment problem in Europe. They're afraid to have the real
conversation. These jobs are never coming back. What you'll hear from politicians is that they're
being outsourced, we're losing our jobs to cheaper labor markets be it in Eastern Europe, China
or wherever. The government is not going in depth on this ongoing problem. Economists turn
their heads as more and more jobs are getting replaced by robots. The government believes that
this a problem that can be solve in the future. Since the Government has no solution, people have
no hope. There are some people that believe humans should be replaced with robots because it
will save the business more money than having human labor. Noah Smith believes Once
Human Labor is replace, what else we can do? For example, imagine that robots cost $5 to
manufacture and can do everything a human can do, only better. You would be as obsolete as
a horse. (Smith ) Workers cant hide the obvious fact that technology is faster and smarter than
them. Robots are also cheaper to take care of than human labor. But Humans still need jobs to
pay the bill and feed the family. Robots cant provide help on that. Business people wanting to

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have robots instead of human labor are affecting the balance between human labor jobs and
machines.

Opponents are companies that are creating these machines; believe technology isnt one
of the main reasons for unemployment. They believe that Technology creates job more than
takes jobs. But they're wrong because in a business owner point of view instead of hiring human
labor and paying wages. Rifkin asserts, These new high-tech specialists and professional jobs
are not mass labor, they're boutique .You're never going to see mass workers in software
companies, nanotech companies and biotech companies. They don't exist. The new workforce is
a specialized profession a lone." (Rifkin) Technology advocates keep saying that new
technology will create new jobs but these new jobs require bachelors degrees and dont need
mass workers. New jobs are only taking a few numbers, Business owners and people that create
technology see having advance robots taking over jobs as upgrade to the workplace. From a book
called Educational Requirements for New Technologies: Visions, Possibilities, and Current
Realities by Roberts Russell are a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution
well known for communicating economics as host of the EconTalk podcast. Roberts said
Businesses relentlessly look for ways to replace workers with machines. The machines get
better and smarter. We go from spoons to shovels to excavators, not the other way around...In a
sense it sounds like a deal with the devil. Replace workers with machines in the name of lower
costs. Profits rise. Repeat. It's a wonder unemployment is only 9.1%. Business owners are not
looking at a workers point of view how financially hurt the workers are going to be if their laid
off. The business see a greater business with robots that are going to produce more than human
labor. Workers are now structural unemployed, if they go back to college that require in these

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new jobs. Theyre going to hurt themselves more financially because of student loans and bills to
pay. Theyre already factories who adapted having a full machine work place.
From PBS news interview with Carl Bass a CEO Autodesk asked how they run has machines
making sneakers than human labor. Bass answer was "Jobs like making sneakers aren't just
leaving the U.S., but leaving the whole planet, as machines inexorably take over." Now there
factories called "Light-outs Factories" Because you don't need lightening when its program
robots working. (PBS) Factories are growing into non-human labor workplace because of
technology. Factories start to change to an all machine workplaces. Low wage jobs are
disappearing soon there will be no jobs for high school students or young adults.
Technology starts out by taking factory jobs and Simple Jobs. Technology advocates
believe that these jobs are not a big deal being taken away because of their low minimum wage.
Rifkin claims, ''You can go to the grocery store and as soon as you take the products off the
shelf, they're automatically accounted for and you can check out without a cashier. Where are the
telephone operators or librarians or bank tellers, the middle managers, the secretaries? The
traditional jobs are all going.'' (Rifkin) Traditional Jobs are disappearing as technology being
created to adapt the traditional jobs. Traditional jobs are disappearing, small business owners
having problems paying the workers with the increase of minimum wage. Their solution is using
technology like tablets instead of young adult workers. In this article Can the Tablet Please
Take Your Order Now? by Sarah E. Needleman and Angus Loten is about a Carla Hesseltine a
woman that owns a small-business called Cupcakes LLC. She currently is having trouble paying
her workers with the new minimum wage hour payment thats currently $7.95 and may rise to $9
an hour under a pledge by President Barack Obama earlier this March. She had to let go 10
workers who currently ask customers what they would like to eat. Carla Hesseltine and some

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other owners say they now see a possible solution to the problem: replacing workers with new
and cheaper technologies designed to help employers simplify operations. Small Business
owners who struggle to pay the workers. Workers get laid off there no rehiring when the
business gets back up. Reason why because owners figure out to use tablets and other cheap
devices to use for business instead of human labor. Small Business using technology as a replace
for workers hurts the employment rate. But Technology can be used a tool and it for the workers
to helps the business become efficient.
New technology makes more jobs flexible. Use technology as a tool and not as a job
replacement. In this article Virtual teams: Technology and the workplace of the future Dr.
Anthony Townsend is Research Director at the Institute for the Future an independent research
organization which conducts long-range technology forecasts and 2 other authors. They Explains
a new program called Virtual teams that helps organization be flexible. Virtual Teams helps
organizations by having workers throughout the worlds working on the same project, this helps
strengthen communication in technology. Their technology that can make organizations capable
globally connected with business partners that lead to expansion for the company and more jobs.
Technology improves communication lets organizations have business meeting globally. Even
though technology has advanced so much over the years computers and other technology still
need humans to communicate to them. In this article Google's Schmidt: Technology can drive
job growth by Eric Schmidt is an American software engineer, businessman, and the executive
chairman of Google. "The computer needs someone to talk to and Pilots will still fly planes, the
elderly will still need caregivers." said Schmidt, who was Google's CEO from 2001 to 2011.
Technology still has a big role in being helpful to humans with doing math coordination and
helps do daily chores. Technology has huge role helping humans and big companies like Google

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are making life easier with new internet programs. In this article Googles Quest to Build a
Better Boss Adam Bryant writes the weekly Corner Office column for The New York Times,
interviewing CEOs, is about a new program called Google My Business will add the business
information to Google Search, Google Maps and Google+, allowing customers to find the
business no matter what device or service they happen to be using at the time. Companies are
also invited to add photos and virtual tours, read and respond to their Google reviews, as well as
add or correct business information like address, phone, store hours and more. In addition, the
service makes it easier for businesses to share on Google+. From the new service, owners can
post news, events, photos and other updates they want shared with customers. (Adam Bryant)
Big Internet Corporation like Google can help business becomes more efficient and brings more
consumers. Corporation like Google making programs for people to be more connected to
people. There still jobs being taken away by machines. There should be an equal amount of
creating new jobs and machine jobs. Technology gets half the work done in faster time then
humans. Then work for human labor decrease. France came with a new work shift hour system
that will still let humans work 35-hour work week. Instead of one person working 70 hours, two
people can work 35 hours. At each stage in the industrial revolution, as you increase productivity
with new technologies. (Rifkin) France solution is that humans split their usual 70- hours work
into 35 hours work so there still workers. France made one solution by humans having less
hours of work but still have job. In this article Here's How Robots Could Change The World
By 2025 by Clark David , a senior research scientist at MITs Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory. David Clark said The larger trend to consider is the penetration of
automation into service jobs. This trend will require new skills for the service industry, which
may challenge some of the lower-tier workers, but in 12 years I do not think autonomous devices

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will be truly autonomous. I think they will allow us to deliver a higher level of service with the
same level of human involvement. This means that there will still be machines taking over jobs
but human labor will communicate the robots. They need the right profession to have the job but
these service jobs will happen in 12 years.

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Works Cited
Aquino Judith."Nine Jobs that Human may lost to robots".nbcnews. 17 March 2011.web. 24
October 2014
Bryant Adam.Googles Quest to Build a Better Boss.businessday.newyorktimes. 12 March
2012.web.18 November 2014
Hargreaves Steve. Google's Schmidt: Technology can drive job growth. money.cnn.CNN. 9
September, 2013. Web.27October2014
Man vs. Machine: Will Human Worker Become obsolete?. pbs.org. PBS Newshour.
24. May.2014.web 20 November 2014
Mauldin John.Here's How Robots Could Change The World By 2025.fiance. businessinsider.20
August 2014.web.18 November 2014
Needleman E. Sarah and Loten Angus.Can the Tablet Please Take Your Order
Now?.online.wsj.The wall street Journal.27 March , 2013.web.11 November 2014
Rifkin, Jeremy. The end of work. Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, 1996.web.3 October
2014
Rotman David. How Technology Is Destroying."Jobstechnologyreview.MIT Technology
review.12 June 2013.Web.12 October 2014
RUSSELL ROBERTS.Obama vs. ATMs: Why Technology Doesn't Destroy Jobs.online.wsj.The
wall street Journal.22, June 2011.web.17 November 2014

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Smith Noah.The End of Labor: How to Protect Workers From the Rise of Robots. The Atlantic
. 14 January 2013.web.27 October 2014
Weiner Norbert.The Human Use Of Human Beings: Cybernetics And Society.The Human Use

Of Human Beings Quotes.goodreads.web. 11, November 2014