I know that over the last 30-40 years many factory jobs or union jobs in the US were lost to outsourcing, and I know that today many car companies and other manufacturers get cheaper labor by opening factories in other countries. My question is, why did this all happen in one giant wave around the same time? Did some kind of law/regulation change to make this more doable for companies? Or is it just because the world became more globalized in general?
In: Economics
Of the 100% loss in the US labor force, interestingly less than 20% was outsourced to developing countries, while the vast majority was replaced by robotics. US factories actually produce more goods today than in past generations. it’s exactly the opposite of what we’ve all been told by the political class.
Source – Fortune Nov 2016: https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2016/11/08/china-automation-jobs/amp/
As for how it happened, I’m going to guess it was a slow progression since adoption of robotics probably took some time and large capital investment and risk initially. Then, as more and more robotics proved successful, and as robotic ability increased, I imagine the pace quickened.
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