I don’t think Vonnegut is necessarily saying that the future is a society dominated soley by machines. His focus in this book is to identify the varying classes that were developing in the mid 1900’s. These divisions resulted in our caste, whoops, I mean class system today. However, in his defense, there are a lot of manufacturing jobs – think of the numerous warehousing computers and machines that operate in Walmarts inventory management system or Intels use of machines rather than humans to physically count and track computer chips. Another element to chew on that he doesn’t identify, but is a close relation – off shoring to low cost centers. Unskilled and skilled labor is off-shored in hordes. Current companies aren’t even going to India anymore, they are looking to lower costs centers, Malaysia. In the US alone we are on the verge of having an entire generation of unemployed manufacturing workers. Facotories that already have or should (US cars)be moved to lower cost centers. How much “work” will the government bail out/think up? Un-needed road construction, trail clean up, US cars? In Oregon it is currently against the law to pump your own gas. Gas pumping is now a career for thousdands in Oregon.
We live in a society dominated by educated folks i.e. managers, professors, engineers – look at those in our blog. To survive as middle class you need a degree in a relevant subject from a good school. We’re all middle class, yet we’re a fairly educated group. What about those that don’t “qualify” for schools? There are so many good points in this book that are spot on with how society is and how the government responds in “job” creation. I love when we get to the part about the educated guys son who doesn’t qualify for school, so he gets to take the test again. Can anyone think of people who fail tests or don’t score as high, but the influence of money gets them in anyway?
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I can't tell if you are criticizing off-shoring or government intervention when off-shoring occurs. I completely disagree if you are saying that off-shoring is negative in any way. The most obvious argument for why Ernst & Young and Exxon are constantly off-shoring is to cut costs and remain competitive. I would much rather have Exxon off-shore jobs to ensure it's long term competitiveness instead of not doing it and slowly becoming an inadequate competitor in the marketplace. If we don't do it, someone else will.
ReplyDeleteThe other point with off-shoring that I am even more passionate about is that it gives people jobs that otherwise have few options. I don't feel too bad for the US high-school drop out who can't find a job because the car factory moved to China. I felt a whole lot more compassion for people in Venezuela who woke made it through school, worked hard their whole life, and still couldn't get a decent job - even in manufacturing. In most countries these represent great jobs and open up numerous opportunities for a better life and a better education for their children that the father never had. The dude who dig dropped out of high-school lives 10 times better just living off unemployment benefits (which seem to be never ending with our current congress).
I think most Americans are grossly overpaid and that outsourcing/off-shoring is a shift in the right direction to let the free market redistribute. Now your comment about gas station self-pumping laws is another argument that I would love to debate soon.
amen. it's as if a job oversees is a job wasted. filipinos are people too you know.
ReplyDeletei see negatives and positives for it. lets talk when unemployment in gets to a reasonable rate again. what happens in 20+ years when it is your kids trying to get that entry level job into accounting, finance, law? there are fewer entry level because firms only need to hire a handful of people.
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