EAllusion wrote:Contrary to the view of Trump and other protectionists, American manufacturing jobs didn't crater because of trade deals. Trade deals were a minor factor that were a strong net economic benefit in other ways. American manufacturing output is actually drastically up since the signing of NAFTA, for instance. The main factor is improvement in the quality of computers and automated technology. Fewer people with more educated skills are needed to produce the same stuff.
It is the consensus opinion of experts that a similar automation boom is coming to a huge range of jobs that Americans do. It's gonna happen, and it's going to happen soon. For instance, automated driving is only a few years away from widespread market use and it isn't too much father from that that this technology will be able to replace paid drivers by being much cheaper. But even jobs like physicians are on the cusp of seeing massive gains in efficiency due to improvements in artificial intelligence and processing power. What happened in the manufacturing sector is about to happen to a huge chunk of the economy.
This isn't a doom and gloom scenario. In fact, it should be awesome. But that does depend on how the government reacts to it. It's the perfect issue to ask about because it makes candidates think about future issues they might have to deal with, but also gives insight into their current stances.
Nicely put. What's already happening is what I said years ago when I said at some point the only jobs available will be computer programmers, until they figure out how to make computers program themselves... which they will.