A few months ago, I worked with The Social Contract quarterly to produce an issue with a section discussing the topic of how automation affects America’s need for immigration. The result was the Fall 2016 issue, subtitled “When Robots Replace Humans.”
After writing dozens of blogs for LimitsToGrowth.org about rapidly advancing automation, robots and computer software, my aim was to produce a series of basic articles that would introduce the subject as a whole to readers who might not have realized the effect of technology on today’s workplace. Many people understand that automation is a growing element of manufacturing that has reduced the need for factory workers, but don’t realize the extent to which the new technology is showing up in every corner of the work universe. The Associated Press reported in 2013 that numerous businesses responded to the Great Recession by implementing machines to replace millions of workers worldwide. It therefore seems clear that the slow pace of employment recovery is at least partially due to automation, although the Obama administration’s numerous regulations have had a discouraging effect on hiring as well.
The facts are basic: when robotics experts say that a substantial percentage of the current workforce will be replaced by machines or software within a decade or two, then America does not need to import immigrant workers to perform jobs that soon will no longer exist. Plus, automation follows decades of offshoring entire industries to Asia for cheap labor, and social dysfunction like drugs and crime have worsened throughout the Rust Belt and other areas of the nation that once produced things.
Editor Wayne Lutton’s introductory remarks:
As Automation Transforms the American Workforce… What need is there for further immigration?
Following are the automation articles by Brenda Walker:
Automation Is Coming for American Jobs
Automation Everywhere: From Manufacturing to Intelligent Software, Technological Change Is upon Us
Amazon Robotics – A case study of how smart machines transformed an Internet store
Finally, Dwight Murphey reviewed Martin Ford’s important book Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future:
