Read the article in the links below and respond to the questions below byposting in the blog.
http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/business-brains/have-workplace-robots-passed-the-tipping-point/10778/
http://www.robots.com/blog.php?tag=112
http://news.cnet.com/Images-Robots-that-do-a-soldiers-work/2009-1008_3-5578867.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10347409
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=11007952
-Discuss some of the social effects of replacing people with robots in the workplace
-Discuss some of the economic effects of replacing people with robots in the workplace.
8 comments:
Economic Effects:
Since automation takes over the jobs of people, many peope are layed of work and are left unemployed. This reduces their living standards. On the other hand the economic effect for the hospital for example would be beneficial as they have reduced labour costs as automation proves to be much more cheaper.
Looking at the social effect of this, if many people are left unmeployed, desperation for either a job or money can cause the unemployed to take part in activities that are not morally accepted. For example: Prostitution or theft.
Thus this makes the social environment in which they live much more unsafe.
RObots reduce the risk of human error and increase the quality of products as they are all consistently made. Thus this along with the increased speed at which they may produce products can be advantageous for the firm adn consumers of the products. A social effect could be that robots actually make the environment in which employees work much safer. This could cause less harm to the employees and making the environment that they live in much safer and as individuals they may fear less about thei health.
On the economic side of things this could also be advantageous for firms as they have to pay less for health and safety issues.
there are several social effects of replacing people with robots at work.
if robots replace people in work places then it will mean that more skilled people are needed to maintain and control the machines meaning that more people will be educated for this job. people will have to go to school and training in order to become skilled to handle the machines and get a job. this will raise the rate of employed skill workers.
Robots increase workplace safety.
in addition to that, workers are moved to supervisory roles, so they no longer have to perform dangerous applications in hazardous settings.
robot and machinery work increases production rate as it is faster and more efficient therefore it produces more income for the company and even for the people.
Social Effects:
- Unemployment: the rate of unemployed people in the working sector will increase as robots begin to slowly replace man power. this will then have disastrous effects on society as there will be tons of idle people with nothing to do all day.
- Lower living standards: if a family’s bread earner loses his job to a robot, it might have negative effects to his family. They might be forced to move into a more affordable neighborhood and perhaps change their way of life.
economic effects:
With robots - productivity increases, accuracy and quality is improved. Though humans are replaced, it saves great costs as reduced wastages, reduced/efficient use of resources, less errors, more consumers are satisfied with the product at the end of the day.
Businesses do not have to motivate employees. training costs of employees reduced, however businesses might need to be trained on how to operate the robots.
To address the unemployment problem, employees can be used to do more demanding tasks - where more intellect is required instead of 'wasting resources' in simple tasks. (e.g employ people to design or create a prototype - bcz a robot can not do that as yet)
I think that some of the economic effects of robots replacing humans are: firstly it leads to unemployment. This would mean that the government would be paying more for unemployment benefits. This is money that could have been spent on other development projects. Unemployed people would mean that there are more people idling on the streets, this can also lead to social cost.
From the hospitals perspective, replacing labour would mean less cost in terms of wages so they would save more. This means they could spend on more sophisticated medical equipment (in the long run).
The hospital also becomes more efficient as meals and other things are delivered on time.
Also it reduces the risk of workers getting infected when delivering biochemical and risky substances to and from Labs.
When it comes to social cost patients loose the one on one. Patients may feel unwanted and loose the 'personal touch'.
-Discuss some of the Economic effects of using replacing people with robots in the workplace.
One of the main issues that arises would be unemployment. If robots begin replacing people at work places then unemployment would rise which would affect the economy. This would result in the unemployed engaing in illegal market and various activities to gain money.
Also,loses in job can strain a family mentally and physically. The standards of living would decrease and people's dept would increase. This can create tensions within a househole and may even affect some relationships. Stress and depression may occur leaving people strained mentally and physically.
In additon, people that lose their jobs may think about moving to another country decreasing the population of the economy.
However, if robots were to replace humans in the work force, there would be more money going through the economy because less money would be used on labour force. Hence, the government would use the monet to develop infrastructure, etc.
ECONOMIC EFFECTS:
- with robots replacing humans in the work place, it will reduce the overal average cost for companies: since they will not have to pay salaries, medical insuarances or other expenditures they would have normally incured with human workers.
-robots produce quality and quantity since they rarely get tired or sick. this will increase overal production for companies and so they will be making a lot more money.
- companies will not lose revenue because of a worker falling sick or taking their annual leave.
-however, with robots there is also the risk of them malfunctioning. when a lot of robots stop working at once, it will have disastrous effects on the company, causing them to lose even more money.
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