There’s a huge probability that within the next 20 years we will know someone who will be replaced by a robot. It might even be you.
According to researchers Frey and Osborne from Oxford, within 20 years an estimated 47 percent of U.S. jobs stand a high chance of being automated, which is a nice way of saying a robot can do your job better. If half the people you know didn’t have a job, what would happen?
I cannot adequately convey how drastic and miserable the status of our country will be if half the workforce had no income or support. The levels of misery will make the Great Depression seem like a mirage in a wasteland. In the Great Depression, an estimated 25 percent of the workforce was unemployed. Now imagine double that, and add in the fact that there will be no job to ever go back to; the job does not exist anymore because a robot does it now and will continue to do that job until a better robot is built. Maybe a hundred years from now there will be a crowd of unemployed humans and robots alike, but that’s a story for another time.
If such a prediction came true then that would mean an unprecedented level of inequality -- enough inequality to make Bernie Sanders lose the rest of his hair. When half the workforce is unemployed, the other half will only grow richer. With the replacement of human beings by robots, the economy will grow because labor will be cheaper and businesses will become more efficient. But all that growth will only be going to the top half that still has a job. America is already the richest nation to ever grace this Earth, and if all that unprecedented wealth is funneled through just the top half, there will be VH1 shows about their wealth for decades. In the end it'll only serve to anger the unemployed masses. Then there would be a social unrest. Then maybe even a revolution.
Yet all of this is speculation. There are some who don’t see robots taking our jobs as much as complimenting them. A robot can do the easy work, leaving humans the time and energy to pursue other interests. Without a doubt, robots will make our lives better because technology always has. However, what hobbies can you pursue if you have no money to afford that hobby?
Part of the solution is to redistribute the wealth into a basic income plan, but here in America that won’t happen until it’s too late. In some European countries, something like that can happen and they’ll be better prepared than we are. Others suggest limiting or regulating the robotic industry, but I can guarantee influential lobbyists will prevent that from happening for a while. Critics will say regulating the industry will be killing innovation. As true as that is, to some degree it will be the first step in the right direction. The happiness of people who are able to provide for themselves and their families should always be protected.
