http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/2/robots-jobocalypsejobseconomyunemployment.html
This article talks about how our country is relying more and more on capital when it comes to producing goods and services, more specifically recent technologic advances. The jobless rate is now at 6.7% which is better then the double digit numbers that we were seeing a couple years ago but it is still relatively high. Workers are being replaced by "robots" and this is worrying many economists who think machines could end up replacing too many workers and capital gains will begin to outweigh labor. This technology is making many companies much more productive and is increasing output at a staggering rate. Other economists say that we are too quick to put blame on these machine for our financial issues, it is argued that many jobs cannot be replaced by emotionless machines and they will never fully be able to take human labor out of the equation.
It is likely that more jobs that are mundane and repetitive will increasingly be replaced as technology increases. However, this may not end badly if this is the case. It would actually be beneficial if more service-orientated jobs (such as a worker at McDonalds) were replaced by robots. This is because there would obviously be a greater demand for people with specialized skills that can design or fix these machines. In that case, it can be expected that income levels could increase faster if people are being paid higher wages to do more technical work. There are some obvious risks to this. Those who are the least experienced, such as teenagers, will have a lot less jobs offered to them. However, teenagers are more likely to use their money on discretionary spending. Second, there is the risk that our citizens will not specialize fast enough to provide adequate supply for the jobs needed to design or fix these robots. If enough people do not specialize, then we will have more people who do not have the relevant skills to stay competitive in the job market. However, if the government increases incentives to encourage more people to become specialized, this could be a less relevant issue.
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