The overall level of unemployment has never been dictated by automation, only by aggregate demand. When wealth pools at the top, demand is kept artificially low.
Policy is by far the greatest factor, but it doesn't help that businesses no longer need as many employees to get things done. Compare profits per employee at new companies like Airbnb to old companies like Hilton. They are off by orders of magnitude due to automation.
Well, if you pretend the 1.2 million people working at Foxconn in China magically don't exist or are some special kind of robot, yes, those 5 folk are all that are needed.
I don't think it's a catalyst either. By and large, businesses that are shedding employees are doing so because they can outsource the labor or because demand is low.
>Compare profits per employee at new companies like Airbnb to old companies like Hilton.
Profits per employee is a terrible measure. Airbnb doesn't require a lot of employees because they've essentially outsourced the labor to their customers. The house you're staying in wasn't cleaned by them, but it was probably cleaned by somebody. You were greeted by somebody that wasn't them also. That's not automation; that's arbitrage.
Hilton hotels probably raised their profits per employee by contracting out their cleaning to agencies.
It's time for tariffs, and making it a little harder for Americans to do business overseas? And visa versa? (If you're not an American citizen; you shouldn't be able to buy real-estate here--period--put this into effect today?).
What do we gave to lose at this point? The 1 percenter's have a lot to fear if we came to our senses?
I happen to know a few multimillionaire's who have exploited labor/materials/environment of developing countries for the last 20 years; I guarantee you couldn't stomach just what they do with the money they saved by being Greedy. I am tempted to call them out? One day maybe? I know this; their kids usually end up despising mommy, and daddy once they figure out just how they ended up so wealthy.
(Shipping chickens overseas to save on processing costs sounds like a myth? I really hope it's not true?)
There are multiple factors, but that doesn't change the fact that the effect robots have is pretty negligible. It is a scapegoat for rising unemployment, not a reason.
There is, also, just one overriding reason, which I mentioned.
>Chickens being shipped to china for butchering and then shipped back to the states for sale being an example of a job not historically offshore-able.
Possibly partly because only recently did American chicken butchers realize that instead of tossing the feet away, they could sell them to the Chinese, who absolutely adore them.