do you think robotic automation of factories will cost jobs?

huh? The future is now; there are plenty of jobs already lost to automation. Not going to get better.

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It also means there will be new ones caused by robots. Setup maintenance training and controls.

Keith Cress
kcress -

Sure, but that requires training that many don't, or can't complete. Even still, the ratio of gone vs. new is probably much greater than 5:1

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The jobs will transition towards more highly skilled jobs.

Automation in many cases is not applied to displace labour, but rather to ensure that every spot-weld is placed in the same location on every part that goes down the line, every part in an assembly actually gets installed, every screw gets installed and torqued to the correct amount, every coat of paint is applied in the same manner. Humans can't adequately do those things.

At least in the automotive field (my area), the long term trend towards automation has been offset by another long term trend towards vehicles that are more and more complicated (and contrary to what some people think, electric cars that meet modern consumer expectations are not simpler, so this trend isn't going to change).

The 1978 Honda that I had decades ago, had an AM/FM radio and that was the only thing electronic in the whole car. No air conditioning, no power windows, no power steering, no ABS, no airbags.

The 2015 that I have now is essentially in the same class of car but it has cruise control, satellite radio, bluetooth, automatic climate control, a bunch of safety equipment, and it meets standards of emission control and safety that were unthinkable back in the old days. And yet, correcting for inflation, this one was less expensive than the 1978 was. How did that happen? A lot of it is due to automation ...