Robots.

[Iron Criterion]

I've always wonder about stories that depict societies where robots perform the majority of job roles, with only the elite roles left to humans (i.e. physicist and the public sector). What would the majority the human race do for money? Money seemingly still exists in these scenarios and they are often depicted as being a consumerist society gone wrong - ruling out a communist society. Also the only reason for using a robot in the first place (from a business perspective) would be to speed up production times and to cut employee costs (I'm also assuming Robots build and maintain themselves). Surely governments cannot subsidise hundreds of millions of jobless people, and even if they could would they be willing? So there'd by millions - jobless, without a role in fulfil in society and probably without money, and they would have to be supported by the working elite. I cannot envision this happening.

What do you guys think?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Meh, I think that the economic problems will be overshadowed by the robot revolution.

 

[martin's a madman]

Emigrate to countries that don't have robots and steal their jobs!

Or something...

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Our jobs will be to maintain and programme the robots that do all the work!

I'll let Gary Oldman explain...

 

[OrenjiJusu]

Soylent green. Or Purple if they can't quite get that bile green colour right.
But seriously in a situation where robots handle all of the dangerous tasks and manual labour im pretty sure the population would have shrunk. If only because less people are actually needed.

 

[AtheistConservative]

While I suppose its possible that robots could take over the creative fields, at that point the only thing stopping them from wiping us out would be robot morality. However if they are simply fulfilling production, then humans will enjoy a life of luxury and may not even have to work. If they do have jobs it would probably be human interaction based jobs.

 

[FalloutJack]

What do you guys think?

I have this strange theory that economics has outlived its usefulness at this time. I don't say this to be crude, but rather that the problem of money is both rampant and apparent as is. You can already see the trouble that whole nations (the U.S. included) are in because of it, because of a glorified numbers game.

Now, underneath all of this, walk with me towards the wily world of business economics. This is a way of life that is suppose to promote growth of industry, the regulation of commerce, and the pursuit of profit for ones own needs. However, the need to support the industry to HAVE a functional industry have come second to the desire for profit. Profit at the cost of quality, at the cost of the paycheck of the common man, at the cost of most lines of decency or regard for others.

What do I mean? Just this: Greed. If things were different in the business world, without the cheating, the underhandedness, the embezzling, and so on...we wouldn't HAVE depressions. Humankind created money and misused it. It should revert to something that CAN'T be cheated so easily. What that is, I'm not sure, but robots couldn't make it any worse - economically - than it already is.