The Post-Manufacturing World

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

Walter Russell Mead

8/21/12

 

A fascinating piece in last Sunday’s New York Times provided a clear picture of how automation is changing the world:

 

This is the future. A new wave of robots, far more adept than those now commonly used by automakers and other heavy manufacturers, are replacing workers around the world in both manufacturing and distribution. Factories like the one here in the Netherlands are a striking counterpoint to those used by Apple and other consumer electronics giants, which employ hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers.

 

“With these machines, we can make any consumer device in the world,” said Binne Visser, an electrical engineer who manages the Philips assembly line in Drachten.

 

Even Chinese companies are beginning to recognize that robotic factories are the wave of the future:

 

(Snip)

 

 

Politically, the country doesn’t seem ready for this kind of debate yet. Both parties feel the need to appear as if they have a plan to create boatloads of high-wage manufacturing jobs, but ultimately the post-manufacturing jobs discussion is the most important one to have.

 

 

[clearvision]

Well someone has to build the robots... OK at least the first one and then I guess it can build more and they can build more and then unionize and then where are we?