Will Robots Eliminate Your Job?

February 22, 2019

The Automation Revolution is coming.


Artificial Intelligence and robots have already changed the way the world works, and in the last twenty years, many jobs have been cut because AI and robots could do a job more efficiently and cheaper without the need of health insurance or worker's compensation for on the job injuries.


The Automation Revolution is about to hit us at a dizzying speed, and blindside us if we're not ready and prepared.


According to Elon Musk and MIT, and several other think tank groups, and entrepreneurs like

the Presidential candidate Andrew Yang, the United States is about to hit something akin to the Industrial Revolution, where people's jobs changed practically overnight.


Back in the early 1900s, many people lost their jobs during the Industrial Revolution. Riots took place and over a billion dollars of property damage occurred during those riots. And many people lost their lives.


This coming revolution is dubbed the Automation Revolution, where automated robots or AI will be taking over jobs because they are 1) cheaper and 2) more efficient and 3) won't complain.


You can research all the ways they will be less expensive and more productive than a human workforce, but I'm not going to get into that right here.


I'm going to get into a solution.


This Automation Revolution is supposed to be worse than the Industrial Revolution--if we don't do something about it, and soon. Robots may be eliminating jobs and in the future, it may be quicker than we expect.


In 5-10 years, truckers in the United States may lose their jobs. That's 3,000,000 jobs lost without a plan to relocate those displaced men and women. They make between $50,000 and $80,000 a year, and some make less and some make more.


In short, they won't have a job. The paycheck they were living on and expecting simply won't be there.


In 5-10 years, retail workers are predicted to be out of work. That's the largest workforce in

the United States. The average retail worker is a 39-year-old woman, making between $11-$12 an hour, with one or two kids.


They would be displaced as well and without a plan to train them to another job--employment they'd need in order to afford the roof they're living under.


Yet, if this Automation Revolution happens, there is a bigger challenge that would consume the unemployed.


School loans...


People who have lost their job and aren't trained in any other field will need to go back to school and learn a new craft--or they'd do so because they'd "think" they need to do so.

Yet, college tuition has risen 2.5 times more in the past fifteen years than it was previously, thus leaving those who attend college in debt, and most for a lifetime. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, nowadays only 27% of college graduates work in the field in which they received a degree for because many jobs are at capacity or don't exist at the extent we've been promised.


According to the US Department of Labor, 53.6 percent of college graduates are jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years.


And to make matters worse, the political system made it impossible to forgive a school loan debt by making school loans immune to bankruptcy.


Going to college isn't a solution even in a time when automation hasn't peaked, and it for

certain wouldn't be a solution during the coming Automation Revolution where Robots and AI may take the bulk of our workload...during a period when 55 percent of the United States employee lives paycheck to paycheck.


What does that mean?


In the simplest of terms, if a worker is in that 55 percent category and loses his or her job, that worker couldn't make it on little to no income for a month in order to look for a new job, especially if unemployment isn't paying or hasn't paid out yet.


The robots are coming...the robots are coming...the AI is propagating...


Do we just sit back and wait for the potential inevitable to flood the system and scream, stress out, and cry when the AI waters rise in our neck of the woods?


Or do we find a solution?


Dr. Martin Luther King suggested something that I think may be very important, and perhaps is a temporary solution or a permanent one to the coming crisis.


A government dividend. 


Okay, don't hate me.


If you all knew me like my friends know me, you'd realize I'm not a communist or a socialist. I'm a history major with most of my studies focusing on the United States Four-Fathers and the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, WWI, WWII, the majority of the United States Presidents before and after the 1900s, and 4-star General Smedly Butler and the coup on FDR he singlehandedly stopped in the nick of time.


I, like the United States Four-Fathers, am a Democratic-Republic-kinda-guy.

I'm a liberal with conservative views and a conservative with liberal views. I'm in the middle striving to better our political system and hoping for "courageous, high-IQ" candidates to enter the presidential debates who aren't scared to take on the system because the system isn't working.


I don't want a Robot serving as president, surrounded by an Artificial Intelligence House and Congress.


And I don't think you do.


But, I digress...


A government dividend given to every single individual citizen in the United States, or else where, over 18 years of age may do several things:


1) Lower welfare costs
2) Lower government health costs
3) Lower government homeless costs
4) Stimulate our economy every single month
5) Lower our overall government debt challenge
6) Studies show that money actually motivates people and people with money are more apt to donate some of their time to community service, and that those with a lack of money are less motivated, are unhealthier, aren't as motivated, are on the edge of being homeless are are homeless, and tend to stay away from community service
7) Taxes would not go up, because there are several areas where tax dollars are consumed that does nothing to support a country or the people of a country, such as the hundreds of empty government buildings that we fund 
8) More people vote
9) A minimum buffer while those who have lost their job figure out ways to get another job
10) More opportunities with entrepreneurship, because a huge spike in home businesses would be more likely with a government dividend


*Note: The above 1-10 are easily found online, and some aren't. Some are derived from interviews I watch from entrepreneurs, scientists, government researchers, and the like... it's boring stuff for most. I'm just putting two and two together into this brain of mine. End Note.*


And for those of you who are worried that taxes would go up, instead of down, please stick with me here.

Government corruptions is in play, and MUST be eliminated. This is the biggest deterrent for

a monthly government stipend. 


Lobbyists pull the political strings, and because so, one of the main side effects of lobbyists paying politicians to push through helpful corporate bills is that big companies have tax loopholes and because so, these corporations have become experts at avoiding taxes. Some are proud to boast that they pay zero dollars in taxes each and every year.

How do they do this?


Amazon, Google, Bank of America, Citigroup and other companies funnel hundreds of billions in earnings to places around the world other than the United States.


If a Value Added Tax was implemented in the United States like it is in many other countries, then Amazon, Google, and many other corporations wouldn't get away with loopholes that allows them to pay zero dollars in taxes per quarter and per year. They would have to pay their fair share. 


A Value Added Tax is a much more efficient way to capture the true value of the United States infrastructure and will be increasingly necessary over time as more and more work is done by software, robots and Artificial Intelligence. With a Value Added Tax to United States corporations, the United States could pay a $1,0000 a month dividend to all documented citizens in the United States that are over 18 years of age.

Now, imagine how much more we could add to that dividend if we dismantled the erroneous, unused agencies and services that the government taxes us on each year. Like I said before, and I'll go more in depth on this, we are taxed billions for the upkeep of 77,000 empty or underutilized federally owned buildings, but I bet you didn't know we are taxed on government handouts, such as Boeing, who has received $13 billion in government handouts, and in a Good Jobs First report, a large corporate contingent receives $110 billion of public, tax payer money. 


And there are plenty more strange areas where our tax dollars go, so go look them up. It's very interesting and appalling at the same time.


So, it is possible to help out the common man and woman, instead of constantly giving to the common corporation.


When times get tough and when robots and AI begin to take employment, we'll need an answer, not a government debate on what we're going to do with all of the newly homeless individuals taking up the sidewalks and the streets.


A government dividend is not a handout.


It's given to everyone. You can opt-in, and opt-out. The rich can opt-in, and send their dividend to whomever they want.


To me, it's more simple than difficult. 


But what do you think? Am I off my rockers thinking that robots and AI can take a mass

amount of jobs away from a human workforce? Or if I'm not off my rocker, do you have other ideas as to what we can do to help the average citizen who may be out of a job when the Automation Revolution hits its peak?


I'd love to read your ideas on this topic. And please don't scathe me. It's just an idea, and a potential future, but nothing in this world is ever set in stone. That's what makes life so beautiful--we can change what we don't want, and we can change to a wonderful and desired result.

Thank you,

Brandon Ellis



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