These days it is hard to read an article about the future of robots that does not include a reference to jobs. As a pure roboticist I object to the constant connection between the two, but as a concerned citizen I think it is a very worthwhile discussion. Since the year 2000, the US has lost more than 6 million manufacturing jobs — that is more than 1/3 of all direct manufacturing jobs in the US and the fastest drop in a single decade on record.
In an opinion piece in the NY Times, Paul Krugman cites a report about the growing evidence of “reshoring” of manufacturing. The principle reasons are rising wages in Asia; lower energy costs in the US; higher transportation costs; and robots. The report concludes that since labor costs don’t matter that much since most of the costly components are already robot-produced in the US, you might as well locate where the markets and infrastructure are.
September 14, 2021
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