I have seen the future, and it’s not pretty.

One of the keys for El Paso’s future development is advanced logistics, if you believe the masterminds at the Borderplex Alliance. What’s in it for you?

Not a lot, unless you own some warehouse space.

Back in the days of broadcast television, there used to be commercials for truck driving schools. Earn up to $35,000 a year, the voice-over promised. That’s real money for El Paso.

But now we’re set to lose even those meager wages, if our robot overlords have their way.

From an interview with Andy Stern, former President of the 2.2-million member Service Employees International Union, from Buzzfeed:

I think the tipping point will be driverless trucks. It’s the largest job in 29 states. It’s 3.5 million truck drivers. Then there are 6.8 million people in auto repair, insurance, rest stops, gas stations and emergency rooms that all live off those 3.5 million people. They won’t disappear overnight, but you know business will deploy labor-saving technology before you or I debate whether we want it and wait until our next car comes.

Business is not going to wait if they can eliminate large numbers of workers. And then we’re going to have this mass problem. Let’s assume it’s two or three million people distributed all throughout the country. That will make what happened in the steel or auto industries look tiny.

I guess we can always eat the rich.

One comment

  1. Wow, mind blown. This is horrible. The wealthy are not going to stop until the only jobs left are for people with master’s degrees or the military-industrial complex. I always laugh when politicians talk about job growth. What kind of jobs? Because the only ones I see are the openings no one is qualified to fill or the janitor at Walmart.

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