I think when things DO come back to America, Americans will be competing with EVEN CHEAPER robotic labor. I strongly believe we are right on the edge of computer technology such as this becomes a reality.
In 10 – 20 years when you go to the grocery story to purchase groceries there will be NO checkout clerks. All will be done with RFID.
Most manufacturing jobs will be done using robotic builders. These units will be generic, and effectively be taught how to do their job. After this, they will bang away 7-24 without breaks or pay.
Grunt level computer programming jobs – Insert, Update Delete junk will be fully code generated, leaving the code babies out in the cold.
Jobs like trash pickup are already much automated and will become more so.
We no longer have meter readers read our electric and gas meters here in San Diego, these jobs – bye bye.
Anyway, it goes on and on. The big question is with all the cheap labor and technology, do we really need all the workers? If we don’t need them, are they then relegated to financial purgatory or can we find some way to allow our population to live and find higher endeavors to follow?
Think about it. We are and always have been a “work ethic” society. What happens when most of us are not needed any more to work?
