Automation threatens dream of 450,000 unionized California High-Speed Rail jobs

By Kevin Dayton
06/20/2017
It’s trendy for public intellectuals to warn that technological advancement may soon lead to the “end of work.” While some might scoff at this prophesy, it’s valid for certain occupations. Unions that represent workers in skilled trade occupations have seen the “end of jobs” for decades and certainly take the threat seriously. A noteworthy example...

TAGS: automation, California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority

The Robot Revolution – How Union-Backed Policies Destroy Jobs for Humans

By Steven Allen
08/31/2015
Summary: Labor unions and their left-wing friends are imposing a host of laws and regulations that are dramatically raising the cost of hiring workers. Minimum wage laws, Obamacare requirements, and many other policies are causing businesses to rethink new hires. Even expensive robots and other forms of non-human labor begin to make sense to strapped...

TAGS: automation, Obamacare

Meet "McCashier" Your $15.00 Per Hour McDonald's Worker Replacement

By Mike Shedlock
08/11/2014
Editor’s Note:  Successful union activism in support of a $15/hour minimum wage will not only reduce the supply of entry level jobs – it will have a disproportionate negative impact on small businesses. Large corporations will invest directly in – or offer their franchisees access to – specialized automation equipment. Small businesses will not have...

TAGS: automation, Fight for Fifteen, Minimum Wage

Drone Transport Ships, Automation, and the Bubble Economy

By Mike Shedlock
02/27/2014
Editor’s Note:  This article by Mike Shedlock leads off with a report on “drone transport ships,” but moves on to explore a provocative and very pertinent question:  Are policies that create the “bubble economy,” i.e., artificially inflated asset values, partly motivated by a desire to counter the deflationary pressures caused by automation? We have explored...

TAGS: asset bubble, automation

Exponential Technological Advances and the Role of Unions

By Edward Ring
07/23/2013
“Robots will steal your job, but that’s ok.” Federico Pistono Anyone who has recently driven through Mountain View, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is likely to have had the memorable experience of sharing the road with a car that has nobody inside. Google’s “autonomous cars” are being tested there, and apparently they drive better...

TAGS: automation, public sector unions, technology