FoxConn to Automate / Be Careful What you Wish For
Robots are apparently replacing the chinese:
Quote:
Higher wages means that automation becomes, relatively, more profitable. And it is to automation that most jobs go to die, not trade or international competition.
These robots are being used at Foxconn for the same reason that self-service checkout counters are being used in supermarkets, for the same reason that self-service yoghurt shops proliferate. The change in relative prices between labour and machines means the machines are being used in place of the people...
...Those who have been agitating for higher wages can pat themselves on the back for those who keep their jobs will indeed be getting higher wages. But there will be fewer of them as a result. Manufacturing jobs, minimum wage jobs, service jobs, whatever, the result is always the same: raise the price of labour and more automation will happen.”
Economic reality is a little different than what the dimwitted hope it to be, but is about as easy to avoid as the law of gravity. Labor prices are not some magic number that can be raised or lowered by government policy, no matter what the demagogues say.
