One Million Robots to Take Over Jobs of Foxconn Workers

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elkein

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[citation][nom]NewWorkForce[/nom]for a bunch of geeks you all seem to think robots = unemployment, i have worked with manufacturing for a long time, what i know is robot = different workforce, someone will have to install the robots, maintain the robots, program the robots, not sure if foxconn thought this out careful because the shift is to a highly skilled, highly trained more expensive, non disposable workforceyou save more money firing one of the top execs, heap loads more money.....[/citation]

Okay then I can tell you I work at a highly automated facility, a place that might have employed hundreds once, we now are "6" workers total, to cover 24/7/365, at record production levels. Of course I'm highly compensated, but, in the not too distant future I will be replaced with automation too via AI that can handle most situations. Then there can only be one.
 

MxM

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[citation][nom]ikyung[/nom]So American workers -> Chinese workers -> Robots. Seems like a logical transaction.[/citation]
So, that bothers me, why a hell we did not build robots in the first place here in US? They cost the same anywhere in the world. Why first we allowed manufacturing to move into China so that they build the robots?
 

trillionsin

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"Reuters cites Gartner analyst C.K. Lu who says thanks to sharply rising employment costs, Foxconn essentially has no choice but to replace workers with robots."

They just arent lining their pockets with as much money these days, geez, too bad, huh?
 

rantoc

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The economy will sure suffer from the increased use of robots, less employed people = less people who can purchase the goods the companies makes = the companies work harder to cut costs to keep profit up = less employment and the cycle continues until the market stalls completely!

Too much progress in the world of capitalism isn't good as it will collapse the capitalistic ways!
 

wiyosaya

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IMHO, this just goes to show that even in developing countries trying to implement capitalistic economies, they will all encounter the same things eventually. In the case of the US (other countries will also likely see this, too) workers lost their jobs to robots and/or jobs shipped overseas. I often think this this type of thing is self-defeating in that these very manufacturers may be inadvertently eliminating their target market.

Of course, I doubt that anyone in this Foxconn workforce could afford to buy what they were producing anyway.

Long term, though, I think this model will fail because of the fact that it eliminates categories of workers from the market who would buy some of these products, and not all of then can be retrained to fit into other economical segments, and all in the pursuit of making as much money as possible.

One thing is for sure, I will think twice before purchasing Foxconn products in the future.
 

figgus

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Well, they had jobs and then, after all the clamoring for more wages, they priced themselves out of the market. That's pretty much exactly what happened in the US too.
 

anti-painkilla

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A lot of people are saying that if they made the products in America with robots then they would save a lot on shipping. However i doubt that is true, Foxconn makes a lot that gets shipped everywhere. China is probably a more 'central' hub for them.

Even if they just produced the American demand for these products, they would still need to ship the raw materials, which would be cheaper to purchase in China than in America.

It really is a shame, greater emphasis needs to be placed on purchasing home grown products, rather than the cheapest. Not easy though, even here in NZ I doubt the majority of non-food products I buy are made here.
 
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