Today, people are being trained to fix machines as opposed to being trained in the field to machine is used for. Since 2000, "Nearly six million factory jobs, almost a third of the entire manufacturing industry, have disappeared"
Are we converting to a technological era that is outpacing the job industry? Is efficiency more important than employing people? Our generation is becoming more and more dependent on technology and everyone is willing to save a little money by converting to machines, even if it may cost millions of people their jobs. Unfortunately, many Americans with adequate skills cannot get jobs in industries that rely on technology. These capable workers have to work at locations where their skills are not utilized.
The picture below emphasizes the fact that no one can get jobs at factories anymore, forcing people to revert to McDonalds and other low paying, service jobs. Ironically, the "help wanted" on the McDonalds store is asking for help because there are too many people that need jobs.
Although machines can drastically improve efficiency, at what point do we have to start worrying about losing jobs as a country? Will people start being trained as machine fixers? Feel free to comment below.
I don't find fault in factories switching to machines. Even though the people who are replaced lose that job, like you said, they can still be trained to maintain those machines. Ultimately, the jobs stay in America. However, if companies couldn't switch to machines, there are other ways to lower their costs. One way would be overseas manufacturing. With this option, not only do the workers here lose their jobs, but they lose any way to stay at that company. I think that switching to machines is a much better alternative than moving production overseas.
ReplyDelete