Article View: sci.space.policy
Article #160Re: Follow-up to "The End of Canadians in Space?"
From: Paul Hounsell
Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 00:00
Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 00:00
64 lines
4554 bytes
4554 bytes
In article <3piads$1la@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com>, c2xrib@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com says... [...] >Yes, but today and for the foreseeable future we need more than "two guys >in a garage" for the computer industry. We *need* all those farmers. >and we *need* all the people to build cars. *Some* of them can be replaced >by mechanization. But I ask you, "Why aren't they replaced right now? Because the design of cars right now is inefficient, I can easily sketch out a design which could be totally produced by machines and over a few years it would increase profits. The wiring harness in cars is a minor system that is totally designed wrong. It is a patchwork design built up from a flawed beginning. Humans are best when the work is disorganized. >The answer, It costs *more* to mechanize these jobs than it costs to >have people doing them. The reason we don't have elevator operators all >over is because human beings are valuable and they are better used some >place else. How many welders are left on the assembly line? Answer not many. In France I have seen a factory that builds television sets with only ONE person to oversee the whole operation. Don't forget government has to take into account the social consequences of firing thousands of people. You may not care about them but they can cause enormous problems if they do not have work. The industrial world could easily get by with 20% of the farmers there are now. If cars were designed to be built by machines then they (cars) could be built much cheaper then they are now with human labour. They are not design that way because it would mean those of people who are now earning a living and in some cases a good living would have nothing (assuming the anti-welfare crowd get their way about eliminating welfare). Those or any other group of people are not going to die of starvation quietly in some corner as the anti-welfare crowd assumes and there is not, and will not be, jobs for those who work with their hands rather than their heads. Our (industrial) society is in trouble because it is very quickly becoming cheaper to do things with machines than it is with people. This is now and increasing leading to long term or even permanment unemployment. What do you do with these people? We have many inefficiencies in society which could be corrected but won't be because of the social consequences. If you don't believe me then look at the farm subsidies or continuing fishing in the depleted Alantic. These are kept going because the social cost is not something the government or industry is willing to pay. Pick almost any industrial and you could eliminate at least half the workers and saving money IF you are willing to design that industry to do the job with less workers. But what is society going to be like if you have 50% unemployment and no fall back source of income? [...] There are other cost besides dollars and cents. Later, I hope Paul -- ======================================================================= Paul Hounsell |disclaimer: Joensuu University Language Center | Of course I have opinions, I am Joensuu Finland | just not responsible for them hounsell@cc.joensuu.fi | and neither is anybody else! =======================================================================
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<3plc5f$42g@cc.joensuu.fi>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!unknown!not-for-mailReferences:
<D7ro97.2Ex@freenet.carleton.ca> <D8q8JA.Fx3@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca> <3pge6o$p9o@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com> <3pgfuv$pbo@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com> <3piads$1la@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 14065a,2e0314170c610b91 X-Google-Attributes: gid14065a,public X-Google-Thread: fb374,2e0314170c610b91 X-Google-Attributes: gidfb374,public X-Google-Thread: 10e6d0,2e0314170c610b91 X-Google-Attributes: gid10e6d0,public X-Google-Thread: 10445c,2e0314170c610b91 X-Google-Attributes: gid10445c,public X-Google-Thread: 1226a2,2e0314170c610b91 X-Google-Attributes: gid1226a2,public X-Google-Thread: 114c3a,2e0314170c610b91 X-Google-Attributes: gid114c3a,public From: hounsell@cc.joensuu.fi (Paul Hounsell) Subject: Re: Follow-up to "The End of Canadians in Space?" Date: 1995/05/20 Message-ID: <3plc5f$42g@cc.joensuu.fi> X-Deja-AN: 102974583 distribution: usa references: <D7ro97.2Ex@freenet.carleton.ca> <D8q8JA.Fx3@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca> <3pge6o$p9o@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com> <3pgfuv$pbo@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com> <3piads$1la@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com> organization: Joensuu University language Center mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: sci.space.policy,can.politics,can.schoolnet.space.sr,can.schoolnet.phys.sr,can.schoolnet.eng.sr,can.schoolnet.chat.students.sr