A few weeks ago L’Espresso published an investigation into the work in the Amazon warehouses where, it seems, that excessively tight work rhythms are causing employees health problems (hernias, back and neck problems …) Without going into the merits of what is (or what is not) happening at the warehouses of the world’s most famous marketplace,
The fact remains that harsh jobs still exist and that removing them would be a success.
Also from the point of view of trade unions. Am I wrong?
And so I wonder: why do we periodically return to discussing new technologies that “steal work from people”?
What do you think for example of the provocation that Bill Gates launched some time ago about giving unemployment benefits to victims of progress and proposing to tax machines?
There are still many harsh works, namely those which, in the long run, can cause health problems for people. Imagine, then, what benefits could be obtained if, for example, on an assembly line such tasks were delegated to collaborative robots.
These are advantages that not only the company would gain but also the workers themselves.
I therefore think that Bill Gates’s provocation was a good idea (there is no doubt about this), especially because what is happening in our factories is extremely interesting on the one hand, but – on the other – also a little disconcerting.
At the same time, however, it would be useful to try to understand why then no-one has ever taxed computers. Until the 1980s there were thousands of employees in companies who wrote, filed, sent letters and faxes … A world light years away from today’s. Then came the computer. And gradually these people ceased to perform most of their duties in the way they did before and started doing things differently.
Yet no-one has ever taxed computers. Computers, probably with an impact far greater than that of HRC (Human Robot Collaboration) applications, have done what these highly evolved automata might be doing in industry in the coming years. With one difference: robots will probably only be used in the work in production workshops and warehouses whereas computers are widespread everywhere and at all levels.
Computers have also taken work from many people. Or rather, they started to perform certain tasks in place of many people and the latter moved on to other jobs. I don’t think that there has been such a high number of unemployed people due to the advent of computers in companies. Quite simply, new needs and therefore new jobs have been created.
Also talking about collaborative robots therefore, my opinion remains the same: new technologies don’t cause mass unemployment. Certain professionals simply disappear (like that of the worker who carries out harsh work) and new roles will be created.
And I would also add another consideration:
