Robotic Nation Evidence

The conventional wisdom says that, as robots take over jobs, the increased productivity should be good for everyone. With robots taking the mundane jobs and increasing productivity, people should make lots more money.

This article from USAToday has a paragraph that paints a different picture:

Since Bush took office, nearly 700,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared from the region. Many are gone forever, outsourced to places such as China and Mexico where labor costs are lower. Even if the jobs are replaced, the salaries and benefits often aren't. "The jobs that are replacing them are much lower wage," says Jeff Collins, a business professor at the University of Arkansas.

Manufacturing is, right now, the most robotic area of the economy. As the service sector turns robotic, we should expect to see this same downward spiral there as well. Manna talks about this -- most of the "normal" jobs head toward minimum wage instead of getting better as the robots arrive. Instead of the wealth created by robots spreading out to everyone, it concentrates in the wealthy, since the wealthy own the robots.

See also this post.