Watch the video on my OP and you get some interesting predictions. The thing about these predictions is that unlike some other predictions, e.g., global warming, where consequences are decades down the road, these predictions are for the next 10 years. In 2019 (17 days away) GM is going to market a completely automated car, no steering wheel. The job of truck driving may be gone in 5 years. The video predicts that by 2030 73,000,000 jobs in the U.S. will be gone forever. The U.S. Department of Labor says the labor force was 160,000,000 in January 2018. The loss of 73,000,000 jobs would mean an unemployment rate of 45%. If you are replaced by a robot it's unlikely that you can retrain yourself to do something else because that something else is probably already being done by a robot.
During the great depression the unemployment rate hit 35%. The problem was that the unemployed were not buying, ergo, there were fewer potential customers, ergo, there was less investment, ergo, there were fewer jobs, ergo, unemployment went up, ergo, people bought less, ergo, ... It was a vicious circle.
The cycle is being set to begin again. Robots may work for nothing, but they also buy nothing.
So what's going to happen? I don't know. But I will make some predictions.
- The crime rate is going to go up drastically.
- Gun sales will go up.
- The big issue in the 2028 elections (maybe in 2024) is going to be the robot problem.
Think I'm wrong? Fine! We'll know in the next 10 years, and that's not that far away.
