[njepa]

You simply shouldn't believe the talk about automation. Most people don't even know what they are talking about. What do people think Chinese workers do? Mr. Marsh is right, it is about trade. If you can make something where workers are paid peanuts and have little, throughout the entire supply chain, without any penalties why wouldn't you? (except the obvious moral implications and long term effects).

What people really don't get is that hyper-automation, when you barely need workers at all, isn't going to come from the West. As we soon don't have anything to automate anymore. Most people here, including most engineers, are in the service sector.

[csours]

Automation isn't all or nothing. It's a progression. That's what I was trying to say. Automation began with the assembly line, interchangeable (uniform) parts, and specifications.

[twblalock]

There are two ways to save money on manufacturing: outsourcing to cheaper foreign workers, or automation.

Until recently outsourcing was the cheaper of those two options. That leads people to blame outsourcing for job losses. However, if automation had been cheaper at the time, it would have been more prevalent and probably would have taken the blame instead of outsourcing.

At some point automation will be cheaper than manufacturing in Asia, and then Asian factory jobs will disappear as the American jobs have.