[quote=flu]I think a lot of engineers that work on robotics, software, controls, and even mech e’s are going to have a promising future. US companies will be under pressure to keep manufacturing in the U.S. U.S. companies will take whatever tax incentives/government money they get and try to automate the crap out of their factories to stay competitive. They’ll need to hire brains who can build these systems, quickly, much more so than hiring people to work the assembly lines.[/quote]
Um, that was what I was doing back in 1991. An entire stamping plant for GM, assembly line replaced by robotic stamp machine. One crane operator moving metal rolls to the front of the stamp machine, another crane operator moving the finished panels to the loading drop point. Over 100 union workers per line sitting at picnic tables watching the machines work playing cards being paid because their contract wouldn’t let them be replaced by automation. No idea how many lines, it was one of those plants measured in tens of acres.
The next round of contract negotiations wasn’t pretty.
Fast forward to 2008, GM get’s bailed out by the Government, stock goes to zero, rebrands, relaunches and the union gets a 17.5% share of preferred stock paying 9%.
