Month: February 2017

Political Calendar: Week of February 12, 2017

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Political Calendar for the Week of February 12, 2017:

Sunday, February 12: Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

Sunday, February 12 – Wednesday, February 15: “Pitchers and catchers report” to MLB Cactus League Spring Training.

Sunday, February 12, 12:30 p.m.: PC 101 Workshop, at the Pima County Democratic Party HQ, 4639 E. 1st Street, Tucson. Training on community outreach, neighborhood outreach, and advocacy at the legislature. Bring your lap top to log into the internet. Please RSVP to: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16eM7wo9DZzU_hlfevYaIa5fgQifl5tQ1iAcgYC5bWtw/edit?usp=sharing

Monday, February 13, Noon: Democrats of Greater Tucson luncheon, Dragon’s View Restaurant (400 N. Bonita, South of St. Mary’s Road between the Freeway and Grande Avenue, turn South at Furr’s Cafeteria). New price: buffet lunch is $10.00 cash, $12 credit; just a drink is $3.50. (New) Featured speaker is Kitty Kennedy, on the congressional budget and Medicare. Next Week: Congressman Raúl Grijalva for a congressional update.

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AZ Donkey Feed Fired Up, Ready to Go!

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By Michael Bryan Some of you may have noticed, and others not-so-much, the widget on the sidebar called AZ Donkey Feed. That is a live feed of the news and information that I take note of every day though my Digg RSS Reader. I follow several hundred RSS feeds from around Arizona and the national media, … Read more

3 years at Blog for Arizona

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Three years ago on Feb. 11, 2014 (in the days of the Obama Administration) I joined the good folks here at Blog for Arizona, after more than  four and a half years blogging at the Tucsoncitizen.com, as “Carolyn’s Community”.  You readers have noticed that I have been tirelessly working on posting progressive events on our image … Read more

The technology tsunami is replacing ‘good paying jobs’ that are not coming back

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Those voters in Appalachia who convinced themselves that a con artist and grifter, Donald Trump, was going to bring back “good paying jobs” by bringing back 20th Century jobs in coal mining and manufacturing are going to be sadly disappointed and badly disillusioned.

Businesses have no financial incentive to bring back labor intensive jobs when they have modern technology — computerization, automation, robotics and now artificial intelligence — to replace human labor.  Tax laws and accounting norms make it easier to invest in robots and equipment than in people.

Ed Hess, professor of business administration at the Darden School of Business at University of Virginia and co-author of the new book, “Humility Is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age” writes at the Washington Post, Coming technology will likely destroy millions of jobs. Is Trump ready?

American manufacturing job losses to China and Mexico were a major theme of the presidential campaign, and President Trump has followed up on his promise to pressure manufacturers to keep jobs here rather than send them abroad.

What he hasn’t yet addressed — but should — is the looming technology tsunami that will hit the U.S. job market over the next five to 15 years and likely destroy tens of millions of jobs due to automation by artificial intelligence, 3-D manufacturing, advanced robotics and driverless vehicles — among other emerging technologies. The best research to date indicates that 47 percent of all U.S. jobs are likely to be replaced by technology over the next 10 to 15 years, more than 80 million in all, according to the Bank of England.

Think back to the human misery in this country during the financial recession when unemployment hit 10 percent. Triple that. Or even quintuple it. We as a society and as individuals are not ready for anything like that. This upheaval has the potential of being as disruptive for us now as the Industrial Revolution was for our ancestors.

Techno-optimists tell us to relax — don’t worry, technology will produce lots of new jobs just like it did during the Industrial Revolution. History will repeat itself, they say. Well, not so fast.

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