Machines coming to take millions of Thai jobs: report

[chado]

10 hours ago, maewang99 said:

yes. fewer of the boring jobs.
 

but more jobs for technologists and researchers... as we will ****all**** have a higher standard of living...

with robots, drones and AV's delivering basic everyday products.... bought online... without even a need to go to a market....

so cheap there is no need to even look for bargains.... everything becomes a commodity.... and priced by fully computerized markets...

 

which means time saved.... 

 

so we can focus on new and exciting horizons such as putting people on Mars by 2024 which we are on course to do beginning with supply ships being sent next year.

 

 

yes, more time to watch cats on youtube and eat junk food

who the we? are you sure you'll be given access to those robots? at best you'll have basic income which will be just enough for you to buy food so you won't die. and robots will serve elites.

Edited June 1, 2017 by chado

[phrisco17]

Sorry to say, but since almost everything here is done manually and even the simplest technology of the past 50 years has been ignored and suppressed, the introduction of just a few early

 innovations could put 10 million Thais out of work. 

[Nobbie49]

Ethnic Thais will welcome this. No more work, what more could they wish for?


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[searcher22]

On 2017-05-31 at 3:08 AM, rkidlad said:

How are you supposed to earn money when there are literally no jobs available for you to do?

Universal Basic Income. It's coming. It's inevitable. A dozen countries including France, Finland and Canada now have pilot projects underway, and many other countries around the world, rich and poor, are considering it.  It has supporters from both the left (social justice) and the right (less government). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced last week that he supports the idea of a universal basic income for everyone.

 

We must not fear machines, we must embrace them. They will liberate us from menial work, so we can do  meaningful work without fear of becoming destitute. The Star Trek future we've all been dreaming about may finally be approaching.

Edited June 1, 2017 by searcher22

[anotheruser]

15 minutes ago, searcher22 said:

Universal Basic Income. It's coming. It's inevitable. A dozen countries including France, Finland and Canada now have pilot projects underway, and many other countries around the world, rich and poor, are considering it.  It has supporters from both the left (social justice) and the right (less government). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced last week that he supports the idea of a universal basic income for everyone.

 

We must not fear machines, we must embrace them. They will liberate us from menial work, so we can do  meaningful work without fear of becoming destitute. The Star Trek future we've all been dreaming about may finally be approaching.

I don't disagree with you on the UBI however I don't see that happening before things get to crisis levels. The peasants will have to revolt first. The Swiss voted on it and rejected it. They give needles to junkies. If anybody would do it the Swiss come to mind. 

 

Thailand is the last country that comes to mind to do something like this.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2017 by anotheruser

[chado]

UBI -- sure.

 

1) At the moment the government needs people because they do jobs.

2) At the moment people needs the government because it pays them money.

They both needs each other. At the moment.

3) When the government has robots who will do all jobs instead of people, why on Earth the government would want to pay people UBI? For what reason? becuase it'd suddenly become kind and just? The government won't need people anymore.

[anotheruser]

5 minutes ago, chado said:

UBI -- sure.

 

1) At the moment the government needs people because they do jobs.

2) At the moment people needs the government because it pays them money.

They both needs each other. At the moment.

3) When the government has robots who will do all jobs instead of people, why on Earth the government would want to pay people UBI? For what reason? becuase it'd suddenly become kind and just? The government won't need people anymore.

What a warped view of the world you have. 

[searcher22]

1 hour ago, anotheruser said:

I don't disagree with you on the UBI however I don't see that happening before things get to crisis levels. The peasants will have to revolt first. The Swiss voted on it and rejected it. They give needles to junkies. If anybody would do it the Swiss come to mind. 

 

Thailand is the last country that comes to mind to do something like this.

 

 

Yes, the Swiss rejected UBI in a referendum, but they weren't necessarily against the concept of basic income (about half the population see it as a possible solution). Rather, they feared it would open the floodgates to economic migrants. As one politician put it, if Switzerland was an island in the middle of a vast ocean, they would have voted for it.  As more countries start implementing basic income, they will have less to fear.

[anotheruser]

Just now, searcher22 said:

Yes, the Swiss rejected UBI in a referendum, but they weren't necessarily against the concept of basic income (about half the population see it as a possible solution). Rather, they feared it would open the floodgates to economic migrants. As one politician put it, if Switzerland was an island in the middle of a vast ocean, they would have voted for it.  As more countries start implementing basic income, they will have less to fear.

Doesn't anybody realize if you give away free money you will do nothing more than create hyper inflation? 

 

I agree in principle everybody has a right to live and eat. However if you give everybody access to money you will just devalue it's worth. If you want rent to start out $3,000 a month try giving out the same amount every month. 

 

The economic paradigm will have to change drastically. The last time I can think of such a changed happen is when the USA killed the natives and they were forced into a cash economy. Things weren't easy and we basically sent them to their graves or starvation. 

 

The white pissed of Trump voter who works in a tire factory is facing this now and it isn't any wonder why they are scared. 

 

You can't really just give out free money or I would be all for it. When the state of Washington raised the minimum wage to $15 it just brought people in the middle closer to the bottom. Try live there now on $15 an hour you will still be living in poverty.

[chado]

1 hour ago, anotheruser said:

What a warped view of the world you have. 

show your view.

by government I meant the high class; by people - the middle and low classes.

[ericthai]

On 5/31/2017 at 3:42 AM, Chris Lawrence said:

but then you read reports that Thailand needs about 2 million more workers? Teeranai Charuvastra, Staff Reporter still needs to do more research.

those are the guys that will be needed to fix the robots.  Hope they dont run those robots on Windows. 

Actually I dont believe all this robot take over crap.  They still cant have a robot independently climb a set of steps or open a door without being pre-programmed to so just that task.  We were suppose to have flying cars by now.. 

 

 

 

[milesinnz]

On 31/05/2017 at 7:24 PM, In the jungle said:

"A farmer irrigates his rice fields in a 2013 photo."

 

Not much sign of intelligence in that caption!

No no.... if you look very carefully, it is the prototype AI Thai rice farmer... they just had to camouflage it so as not to frighten the locals......

[oldcarguy]

on Japanese NHK TV today was a story  on  Tractors that are "robots"  ,

well really they were computer controlled with the new GPS Japan is doing ,

 

So the future is here if you have the $$$$$$ , 

 

Will Thai farmers have the money , probably not , but the future is already here as far as rice farming ,

even just a  gas  powered rice planter machine like they have in Japan will take jobs away.....

 

But Thailand needs a few Subs so will not have the money this year !

[chado]

3 hours ago, oldcarguy said:

well really they were computer controlled with the new GPS Japan is doing ,

yes, but there's a tiny detail here: it has to be controlled by a human. which allows a human to have a job and be paid for it.

whereas AI won't require a human's control at all.

[Redline]

I mean, they are already decades behind in much of the machinery here.  If they just upgraded to current versions of machinery, much less futuristic versions, millions would lose their jobs.  Even if they updated their computer systems, the lack of redundancy would cost many jobs.  They better fix the education system quick, not everyone can be an actor, artist or musician.

[Ruffian Dick]

Okay, let's unpack this little morsel of alarmism. First, in the video, we see employees in a factory, which looks like Pegatron, FoxConn or some other iphone plant in China. The fact is people are buying cell phones, they are building and selling iphones, nobody's losing their jobs due to this. Definitely not farm jobs!

 

Alarmist journalism aside, "AI" technology, let alone robotics, has a LONG way to go before machines can take over any of the industries and positions mentioned.

 

Here is something a little more accurate. You and I and everybody you know will be long gone before this happens, if there isn't a Luddite revolution first.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/607970/experts-predict-when-artificial-intelligence-will-exceed-human-performance/

Edited June 2, 2017 by Ruffian Dick

[jcsmith]

On 5/31/2017 at 2:08 PM, rkidlad said:

Scary really. As time goes on machines will take over so many jobs. The real big problem then will be how to distribute the money. How are you supposed to earn money when there are literally no jobs available for you to do?

We're going to have to move to some type of a shared welfare style system at some point. There's really no way around this. Machines and AI are maturing rapidly and they will handle the work more cheaper and more effectively than we will be able to. It will hit things like driving, customer support, factory jobs first, but long term many people won't be suited for the highly specialized jobs which are available without things like Brain/Computer Interfaces. 

We can view that as a doomsday event. And if there is not a redistribution of wealth it would be. But provided everyone has sufficient resources to live it, and things to occupy their time, it could also be a very good thing. If we didn't need to work we could spend a lot more time with our families, and doing things we want to do rather than things we are doing out of necessity. It's going to require the people at the top to give up something though, and that's the real challenge. 

[manarak]

On 1.6.2017 at 1:11 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

while in Europe these jobs have been lost by the workforce that priced itself out of work.

In New Zealand the people losing out to automation are low paid people eg petrol station attendants, car park cashiers etc.

Other jobs at risk are bank tellers, receptionists, store clerks etc. None of which are highly paid.

Of course NZ gave away most of it's industry years ago, so it has no major industries to automate.

it's not a question of how much people are paid comparatively to others.

the question is only how much cheaper are the robots.

 

I am always astonished at the total cost of operating a manufacturing robot. it's astronomical. if companies make the decision to replace a significant part of their human workforce with super-expensive robots, there is something wrong with the human workforce or with its cost. look no further.

the socialist ideal is people out of work and others overburdened with work but not paid much more than those who don't work.

 

 

[jcsmith]

The reason that jobs are at threat is because it the machines are cheaper in some cases, right now. It will be the case in more as the years go by. After the initial investment they are virtually free other than energy and maintenance. While a traditional sci fi style robot that can outproduce us is still a good ways away, AI does not need that. Auto-driving cars are a good example of that. There are already shipping trucks, and auto-driving taxis in the works. Customer service jobs are already being lost to software. Most industries are still years away from seeing serious impacts but it's coming. 

[kannot]

On 5/31/2017 at 3:15 PM, Bastos60 said:

yeah with the aging problem in thailand and the oncoming lack of young kittens, how are they going to keep all those baht coming in every month.

 

[fruitman]

On 2017-5-31 at 10:35 AM, Moonlover said:

Check out The Luddite fallacy. It is the simple observation that new technology does not lead to higher overall unemployment in the economy. New technology doesn’t destroy jobs – it only changes the composition of jobs in the economy. It's been kicking around for quite a few years now.

 

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/6717/economics/the-luddite-fallacy/

Machines can also create many jobs, especially jobs nobody would do without them.

Thailand needs huge farms where machine do the work.

 

Supermarkets also cost a lot of jobs but they make life much easyier for busy people who work hard.

[tominbkk]

It's not like this is a big surprise.  It's been decades now that they've known this will happen, decades to prepare, educate, develop etc.  But the short-sighted policies that look at short-sighted profits is what prevails.

[phrisco17]

Because labor cost is extreamly low, as is in Thailand, and technology expensive it is cheaper in the long run to hire workers than invest in technology. Hence, an over abundance of workers in almost every business; manual accounting/paper backing up computer systems; and several manual laborers doing the job of one equipped with the modern equipment. And there is the added benefit to the government of a low unemployment rate. Technology is a commodity that's not in great demand here neither by business nor government!

[fruitman]

14 minutes ago, tominbkk said:

It's not like this is a big surprise.  It's been decades now that they've known this will happen, decades to prepare, educate, develop etc.  But the short-sighted policies that look at short-sighted profits is what prevails.

 

Well there are very good technicians in Thailand, i see them every week fixing our electric boom with a whole team...every week again.

 

[xerostar]

If you believe that automation won't cause job losses (or any other problems) then maybe you should read this report :

 

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/apos-death-spiral-apos-tsunami-041341506.html

 

[fruitman]

6 minutes ago, xerostar said:

If you believe that automation won't cause job losses (or any other problems) then maybe you should read this report :

 

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/apos-death-spiral-apos-tsunami-041341506.html

 

This has absolutely nothing to do with thailand, it's all about the US.

[xerostar]

Yes the report I mentioned is about the horrible situation in the USA, but it illustrates what will soon be happening everywhere, 

not only in Thailand, but world-wide.

 

Further reading :  Amazon Is Taking Over the Globe, and Retailers Should Panic!

 

                     And:  The rise of mobile phone shopping in Thailand

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎01‎.‎06‎.‎2017 at 8:27 PM, searcher22 said:

Universal Basic Income. It's coming. It's inevitable. A dozen countries including France, Finland and Canada now have pilot projects underway, and many other countries around the world, rich and poor, are considering it.  It has supporters from both the left (social justice) and the right (less government). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced last week that he supports the idea of a universal basic income for everyone.

 

We must not fear machines, we must embrace them. They will liberate us from menial work, so we can do  meaningful work without fear of becoming destitute. The Star Trek future we've all been dreaming about may finally be approaching.

"Meaningful work"? Please give examples. I don't know anything that can't be done by robots with AI.

If you mean we can all garden, cook, paint, arrange flowers or take photos etc, that will be fine if we all get enough money, and there is nothing to say we will.

So far, governments haven't even acknowledged that millions of us will be unemployed.

[thaibeachlovers]

12 hours ago, fruitman said:

Machines can also create many jobs, especially jobs nobody would do without them.

Thailand needs huge farms where machine do the work.

 

Supermarkets also cost a lot of jobs but they make life much easyier for busy people who work hard.

Thailand needs huge farms where machine do the work.

and the jobs they will do instead????????

Their education is limited and they have no qualifications.

 

If one wants to see a country where the locals don't work go to Saudi. They import guest workers to do everything. Equate guest workers to robots and one gets the idea. It's not a pleasant alternative.

[thaibeachlovers]

15 hours ago, manarak said:

it's not a question of how much people are paid comparatively to others.

the question is only how much cheaper are the robots.

 

I am always astonished at the total cost of operating a manufacturing robot. it's astronomical. if companies make the decision to replace a significant part of their human workforce with super-expensive robots, there is something wrong with the human workforce or with its cost. look no further.

the socialist ideal is people out of work and others overburdened with work but not paid much more than those who don't work.

 

 

That's old thinking. Once AI comes in robots will make other robots, so the cost per unit will be very small. Plus, they'll service/ repair themselves.