James is CEO and founder of Open Source Motor Drivers and a core team member at the San Diego Makers Guild. He describes himself as "just some clueless guy who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. Luckily, very few people ever listen to what I ramble on about. That's the beauty of the internet; it's big enough that almost anyone can be ignored."
Is it:
A. "Manufacturing jobs strangled by government regulation.."
B. “Outsourcing of work to other countries where worker pay is lower...”
C. “Them damn ‘illegals’ a’come all up in a’here, a’steal’n my jerb!”
WRONG: None of the above.
They were automated away. Workers were replaced with machines because technology advanced, the corporations invested in it and reaped the rewards. Worker productivity continues to increase, while worker pay is stagnant because automation increases productivity and reduces worker demand. The job gains we have seen are all in the minimum wage jobs (not worth automating) and high end jobs (too difficult to automate). The jobs in the middle are worth automating and can be automated. The obvious solution is to shift people up into jobs that require more education. The blockage is overpriced education and lazy people more interested in assessing blame than in learning. The real solution may be new age hippie Makers: Dropping out, becoming self sufficient, and/or embracing automation and letting the robots they build and own do the work for them. (Read more on James' website.)