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African Manufacturing Jobs Could be Threatened by US Based Robots, Report Says (bbc.com)
Within less than two decades it will be cheaper to operate robots in US factories than hire workers in Africa, a new report warns. From the report: Falling automation costs are predicted to cause job losses as manufacturers return to richer economies. Some analysts say poorer countries could be less impacted by this trend, however the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) suggests otherwise. But its report adds African nations have time to prepare for the change. "African countries must not shy away from manufacturing, but instead prepare by increasing access to internet, investing in technical skills and promoting technological innovation," said Karishma Banga a senior research officer at ODI. "If done well, automation can present important opportunities for African countries by improving labour productivity in manufacturing," she said. It has been suggested that poorer countries will not as be affected by automation because they have less money to invest in it.
So I guess this is poetic justice.
nt
The story of all civilizations.
Africa needs to get its shit straight and cook up an economy to support themselves. They do not need to be the world's latest source of cheapest available labour to be exploited for trinkets. No, "the internet" and other gimmicks are not even key here: The key is to get organised. This needs infrastructure, of which information tech is but one part. Africa doesn't need the rest of the world exploiting it, supporting its upper crust in the name of "development aid", patronising it, or anything else. Africa needs to get its own shit straight.
. . . African robots are cheaper than US robots.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Africa doesn't really have much of a "manufacturing" sector to begin with...
Your economy is in trouble when companies use robots in America to build huts.
Within less than two decades it will be cheaper to operate robots in US factories than hire workers in Africa
Speaking as someone who runs a manufacturing plant and who has bought robots, this is complete bullshit. Anyone who actually believes this has no idea of the costs involved or the capabilities of robots or manufacturing automation. There is PLENTY of headroom in labor intensive industries for people to be employed in manufacturing including in Africa. Robots simply are not that cheap or capable and are in no danger of becoming so any time soon for most tasks.
Robots are economically viable for high volume and/or dangerous work. They are not nearly as flexible or capable as many people imagine them to be and they certainly aren't cheap. There are some industries and products where they make a lot of sense and many more (especially low volume production) where they are not economically viable. Most automation actually doesn't come in robot form either for that matter.
The problem Africa has in getting into manufacturing comes in several parts. 1) A lot of corruption, 2) extremely bad infrastructure, 3) An inexperienced talent pool for workers. All these are solvable problems but aren't easy ones either. Automation is far down the list of obstacles to manufacturing in Africa.
In other news 99% of the population unemployed because of tractors.
When I saw the words "robots" and "threaten" in the title, I was thinking the US was using armed drones to take out African workers.
Some regions could be stuck in a cycle of permanent poverty. That is, if you give them only fish, and no fishing nets, then they're dependent on you for fish. Now, replace a simple net with modern robots connected to modern computers, and it's obvious they can never build such a thing from scratch, starting with zero relevant knowledge or infrastructure. Worse, if somehow you happen upon a textbook that explains how to engineer or program computers or robots, chances are you won't try to make a robot manufacturing plant in your fish handout village... you'll go to where the robot and computer jobs are, somewhere that already has computers and robots.
Either they'll be dependent on handouts from robot-owning regions, or robots are brought in locally to do the work locally. Either way they'll be unemployed. I guess what it all comes down to is: who owns the robots, and how are the fruits of their labor going to be distributed? We still don't have a good answer for that.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
In other news 99% of the population unemployed because of tractors.
99% of the oxen and draft horse population: yes.
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This article can be applied to any target nation's economy, not just African nations. And the robots taking away jobs come from Asia as well as from the West. Where African nations will win, is by producing better quality products than anywhere else, and by protecting their resources for future generations to enjoy.
Science innovates for better technology. Better technology makes better automation. Better automation often leads to low-quality jobs being replaced.
This has how it has always worked and will always work.
I imagine that everyone has noticed that Africans are getting more uppity lately. Considering the low IQ of Africans, it's a shame to encourage them in fields to which they are doomed to failure.
Africans by physique and intelligence are not suited to the complexities of modern manufacturing. No, in point of fact, they are highly evolved toward the one task which they excel at: neolithic agriculture and animal husbandry.
No greater sorrow is there than someone striving for what is intrinsically beyond their reach: a Downs child applying to MIT, or an African trying to assimilate into the modern world.
Not if you take into account shipping to the US. If you want to sell in Africa, you'll produce in Africa, but if you want to sell in the US, you'll produce in the US.
Sorry but it's not remotely that simple. US labor is among the most expensive in the world so labor intensive goods tend to be produced elsewhere, even for items consumed by the US. But even that doesn't capture it all. Supply chain location matters too. East Asia dominates electronics manufacturing in large part because that is where the supply chain is located. It's FAR cheaper to make the products there and then ship them to the US in most cases and that isn't really a function of labor rates for the most part. Japanese labor isn't much cheaper than US labor but Japan exports a huge amount of stuff to the US. Conversely the US has a HUGE export sector too even though the US is a net consumer.
you frequently need to ship the raw materials from somewhere, but producing at either the material source or the selling destination is cheaper than involving a third intermediary location for production.
The calculation isn't that simple. It depends on relative labor rates, tariffs, exchange rates, local supply chains, infrastructure, lead times, communication costs, administrative costs, and a host of other considerations. All other things being equal you would be right but things are rarely equal like that.
I think Africa has great access to the Internet. Various princes and other administrative people for the NNPC are constantly contacting the relatives of deceased foreigners about unclaimed riches in trunk boxes. Given the amount of 419 e-mails I would say they have plenty of bandwidth.
>> "I guess what it all comes down to is: who owns the robots, and how are the fruits of their labor going to be distributed? We still don't have a good answer for that."
The group/state/organisation that owns said robots enjoys the fruits of the robots. This was worked out a few milenia ago.
Robots will lead to on-shoring. This isn't really news. Both Afrika and Asia will be selling way less finished goods to the first world.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
They seem to be doing pretty well with robots despite wages and working conditions we here in America find deplorable.
Yeah, good infrastructure, skilled employees and a lack of (the wrong kind of) corruption is good. But those things are also expensive. You need schools and roads. And with schools and roads comes taxes and (worse) an educated and mobile workforce. If you're gonna pay that much you might as well build in American (or whatever country your selling in) and not pay the tariffs.
The point of the article is that automation is going to hit the developing country (e.g. the ones without the stuff you're citing) hard. This is the thing that always drives me nuts about people. They want all the good stuff (skilled, hard working talent) and they _never_ want to pay for it. I get it. I don't want to pay for nice thing either. But sometimes you either do or you don't get it.
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In other news 99% of the population unemployed because of tractors.
99% of the oxen and draft horse population: yes.
A single modern combine, operated by one driver, can do as much work as 100 horse pulled reapers driven by 100 men.
Only in a state that doesn't charge a business property tax.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
A robot is gonna take your job away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
And now the jobs are lost in Africa
Gonna take a miracle to keep the things we had
The US military can't find a single positive use for anyone with an IQ below about 83. This includes ~10% of the population. Imagine that, they can't do anything productive. Africa has an average IQ of LESS than 80... Good f'ing luck...
facts, look it up.. search IQ by nation etc .. Also theres no evidence that IQ can be improved from the biological, it can however be retarded(childhood abuse, malnutrition, public schools).
Every word he spoke is truthful, snowflake.
You rage against reality to no effect. We can see what is right in front of us, even if you choose to cover your own eyes.
Racism has a past, but antiracism has no future. Pluck the Talmudic mind virus from your brain, if you wish to live.
A robot usually is made of metal.
Business people are usually made bones and shit packed in skin.
Maybe not all manufacturing is the same? I'd imagine the clothing industry is going to be very prone to robot manufacturing
Clothing manufacturing is among the hardest industries to automate. Clothing manufacturing is among the most labor intensive industries in the world. This is why you almost invariably find clothing manufacturers to be clustered in places with extremely low labor rates. This includes making the cloth for the clothing too. Even the most automated looms require quite a lot of labor to operate.
I don't think your experience translates to the entire manufacturing industry.
The calculations for labor vs automation don't depend on what you are making. To oversimplify, you have material costs, labor hoursXrate required, and overhead / volume. Automation introduces some capital costs and reduces the labor hours. Whether or not automation makes sense depends on the size of the reduction in labor costs and how much volume you can amortize the fixed costs over. None of this depends explicitly on what sort of widget you are making.
We need to stop propping up crappy oppressive regimes (including China, truth be told) with shitty products at WalMart. Bring the jobs back to America, roboticize them and force some of these lazy maggots to get a better education. Simple math.
Just think of all those poor African pirates who will be out of jobs! What will those poor innocent criminals do without lots of rich ships to plunder?
Something about this article must be getting away from me. I would think that wealthier places than Africa where wages and benefits are high would be targeted sooner than low wage companies. If a $25.00 per hour employee is eliminated the savings is obvious but if you remove a worker who earns one dollar a day or whatever the economics are unclear to me. The new issue is whether my automation can do better and cheaper than the competitors automation. That leaves poor nations and businesses in a very bad position as the funds to automate a production facility are a huge barrier.
I don't know about that figure. There are a lot of Amish or Mennonite farmers using draft horses, and there are as many horses, today in the USA, as there were in 1900. A lot of non-Anabaptist farmers with draft horses for sport, as well, at least in PA.
Oxen are SOL, though. The only oxen used, other than in historical parks, are steers being fattened for the table. Tasty for us, at least.
Of course, 5% or more of the US populace is still employed in agriculture, so tractors didn't end 99% of the jobs.