MIDNIGHT IN AMERICA PART VII
By Dylan Jovine (Go to Part I to read first)
The Coming Spike in Unemployment
For example, take artificial intelligence.
Everyone hails it as the next best thing since sliced bread. And it may turn out to be that.
But AI is being adopted faster than any new technology in history.
Faster than automobiles, faster than the internet and faster than the iPhone.
And that’s a problem. It’s being adopted faster than the jobs it will replace.
Indeed, this technology threatens the jobs of almost every man and woman in America.
And it won’t distinguish between blue-collar workers and white-collar workers. Jobs will just vanish.
It’s already begun.
For instance, CNBC recently reported that 37% of CEOs say AI already replaced workers in 2023.
A new study from MIT estimates that AI will replace as many as two million manufacturing jobs within the next 12-18 months.
And a recent report from Goldman Sachs was even worse: the bank predicts that two-thirds of all jobs are at risk from AI.
Think about that: 66% of all people could lose their entire job or lose part of it and be forced to become part-time workers.
The fact that we are rushing this out without any concern for working Americans is a serious problem.
The Ultimate Job-Killer
Another economic crack is forming with automation.
This is another one of these so-called miracles that’s going to cause a whole lot of pain before we get to the so-called promised land.
In fact, automation may be the ultimate job killer.
Every time I go to a WalMart and see one of these machines, I wonder what happened to the person who used to do that job.
Even the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates that as much as 47% of all jobs could be automated in the future.
And this isn’t just hitting middle-aged workers hard.
Talk to any college graduate and they’ll tell you this has become the most difficult job market they’ve heard of.
Again, this is another hint that the cracks underneath our “shining city on a hill” are widening dangerously.
It’s just not sustainable.
There are many more economic cracks...
What is most alarming is that they are all linked back to the core of our foundation being so weak.
The unnerving thing about this weak foundation is that nobody talks about it anymore. Not for years.
And the situation has only gotten worse and worse.
