Axios: The Coming Impact of Automation

Editor’s Note: If you haven’t already done so, read my review of Kai-Fu Lee’s book AI Superpowers to grasp the background of this.

Axios:

“Automation will have the biggest impact on entry-level and older workers, because more of their jobs tend to be routine or physical in nature and are most likely to be taken over by machines and algorithms, according to a forthcoming McKinsey Global Institute report.

Why it matters: Almost 40% of U.S. jobs are in categories expected to shrink between now and 2030.

Automation will affect some of the country’s largest occupational categories: office support, food service, production work, customer service and retail sales.

The hollowing out of middle-wage work will likely continue, per the report, without deliberate intervention to provide workers with skills they need to get higher-paying jobs. …”

Oh … just 40% of American jobs? Isn’t the latest estimate up from 31% in the last McKinsey report? What will all those people do?

I’m sure our already discredited political class will be able to handle that on top of the millions of legal immigrants and illegal aliens which are imported every year. Everyone will just become a home health aide and make around $20,000 a year and surely the average take home income of that profession won’t shrink with a huge glut in the labor market?

Axios:

“Why it matters: McKinsey’s analysis of 315 cities and more than 3,000 counties shows only the healthiest local economies will be able to successfully adapt to disruptions caused by the next wave of automation. Wide swaths of the country, especially already-distressed rural regions, are in danger of shedding more jobs.

On one end of the spectrum: a couple dozen successful cities with diversified economies and a lot of young, highly educated workers who are likely to be more resilient to workforce transitions.

On the other end: “trailing” cities and rural regions with aging workforces, lower education levels and jobs that are highly susceptible to automation-related displacement. As a result, these places may see a decade of flat or even negative net job growth.

Yeah, this is how the growing populism problem in Middle America will be solved. I can’t wait to see all the rubes swallow that from their Silicon Valley overlords. Here’s a toast to the eternal free-market principles of True Conservatism which is classical liberalism!