Sorry for the delay in responding.
For my carrier i expect to retrain ever 3 to 4 years. I will still be programming but I will be using totally new tools and skills to do it.
I also spend a good chunk of my off work time learning new skills.
Places like
- https://www.khanacademy.org/
- https://www.coursera.org/
- https://www.futurelearn.com/courses?filter_availability=new-and-upcoming
- https://www.open2study.com/courses
Can help to offset the cost.
I also feel obligated to mention http://profoundlydisconnected.com/
One of the thinks to keep in mind is computers already did this once. They replaced a lot of office worker jobs.
One lady I know worked at a mine. Her job was to keep track of all the paperwork for like 50 employees. When it was all done on paper. That was all she did. There wore several (probably hundreds) people that did the same job. To me a kid that has had access to a computer since he was like 5 this is nuts. An hr department of 5 people could do the same work now. I have to wonder where all those people went to work. Some of them aged out of the workforce and others went on unemployment most went and retrained themselves to do a new job.
Now we are seeing mechanical automation (robots) replace people. It's not new it's just in a new industry. People will adapt and find new jobs, or they won't and will either retire go on some form of welfare.
Certainly, its callous to just throw someone's job out, but how much responsibility is on the individual and how much the company to train the individual to new skills. How does a company benefit in training a warehouse worker into an office worker if they don't do the effort ahead of time?
These are companies, not charities. This isn't to say that we don't value physical labor jobs, we rely on them. But those in physical labor especially in warehouses have to know that their job is going to be replaced. Waiting for it patiently then throwing outrage when it happens doesn't make any sense. Where is the personal responsibility?
You are probably right. For the unskilled jobs left they might get less pay. I was referring the skilled jobs that would be needed to maintain the systems.
edited because I can't English
It's the only way a company can stay in the USA and stay competitive. Is to automate the processes they use to produce a product. Now the 5 or 6 people who are still working will get payed much better per person then the line workers but the over all cost will be less for the company.
I just want to say this is the right way to look at things.
Despite the oncoming joblessness, I totally support the move to automation. Most of these jobs are terrible jobs, which pay poorly. Those 4 people who delivered parts just walked back and forth all day and pulled things around with hand trucks and cleaned the parts depot. That is not a good career. Welding 4 joints and prepping some bolts for the next worker down the line is also not a good career.
I work as a developer. At several jobs, I actually would walk around the office looking for work I could automate. We would watch the office people and see what they did then go and build a program to replace the system. Over time the number of people to accomplish a team's job would go down. It didn't happen overnight but we wore putting people out of work.
When I first realized this I was kinda bummed about it. After a while I had to accept that that was my job to put people out of jobs. That includes my own.



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