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Democrat Senator Introduces Automation Protection Bill « Limits to Growth

Democrat Senator Introduces Automation Protection Bill

Senator Sherrod Brown recently submitted legislation that requires employers to notify workers of new technology being implemented and provide retraining. The costs will be on the business owners which is proper since they will be saving big money by replacing humans with machines: taxpayers should not be hit with the huge costs of transitioning to an automation economy although of course we all will be taxed for unemployment welfare over the long term.

Below, some types of manufacturing have largely become automated.

Keep in mind that tech experts forecast a massive loss of employment in the near future caused by robots and software. Oxford researchers forecast in 2013 that nearly half of American jobs were vulnerable to machine or software replacement within 20 years. Rice University computer scientist Moshe Vardi believes that in 30 years humans will become largely obsolete, and world joblessness will reach 50 percent. The Gartner tech advising company believes that one-third of jobs will be done by machines by 2025. The consultancy firm PwC published a report last year that forecast robots could take 38 percent of US jobs by 2030. In November 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute reported that automation “could displace up to 800 million workers — 30 percent of the global workforce — by 2030.” Forrester Research estimates that robots and artificial intelligence could eliminate nearly 25 million jobs in the United States over the next decade, but it should create nearly 15 million positions, resulting in a loss of 10 million US jobs. Kai-Fu Lee, the venture capitalist and author of AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, forecast on CBS’ Sixty Minutes about automation and artificial intelligence: “in 15 years, that’s going to displace about 40 percent of the jobs in the world.” A February 2018 paper from Bain & Company, Labor 2030, predicted, “By the end of the 2020s, automation may eliminate 20% to 25% of current jobs.”

It’s nice to see someone in the capitol paying attention to this world-changing subject. This bill won’t go anywhere, but increasing attention directed toward the coming jobs depression is absolutely welcome.

Next, some legislator can propose a bill to end low-skilled immigration entirely, because simple repetitive jobs will be taken by smart machines as soon as they are cheaper than humans.

Sen. Sherrod Brown introduces measure to aid workers displaced by automation, Cleveland.com, September 11, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who made “Dignity of Work” his slogan during a short-lived presidential exploration, on Wednesday introduced a bill that would require that workers get advance notice and training when their companies adopt new technologies.

The bill also would require that employers give six months of severance pay to workers whose jobs are lost to automation.

“No matter how technology changes, Ohio companies still need human beings to oversee that technology,” Brown told reporters. “Ohio workers will always be our greatest resource, but right now, too many workers get left behind when companies adopt new technology.”

Brown said his “Workers’ Right to Training Act” would require employers to provide and pay for on-the-job training for workers affected by the introduction of new technologies, including training those whose jobs are to be eliminated so they can get a similar job elsewhere.

By helping those workers receive the training they need, Brown said the bill will also help ensure the U.S. workforce remains high-skilled and capable of competing in a global economy, and ensure that workplace technology introductions are fair to workers. He said workers would have the right to sue if their employers don’t comply. (Continues)