A View on Automation

A review on yelp, at my place of work; really helps me fortify my position on automation.  A customer complains of a long line, and suggests automation of the jobs of everyone at our location to save their time.  I learned what is at danger here.  The danger is that our context, convinces us collectively; that the freedom and ability to support the lives of several people should be given up, FOR THE VALUE of a quick errand.

An emphasis on people is crucial to have towards our labor force and businesses.  Human beings need access to the resources for production without impossibly difficult capital requirements, but must pass the challenge to encourage the most effective use.  Automation will make it difficult for people to support themselves or start entrepreneurial efforts.  Automation of a majority of business operations allows companies to make profits, exhaust a high volume of resources and escape the responsibility to communities, and people.  Prices of resources are on current calculations of value, but how much will precious resources cost when they are in times of stress or exhaustion?  Whoever buys resources before their exhaustion, buys them at a huge discount.

When It Comes Around

Advertisements will announce lower prices for consumers, and how it makes our lives more convenient.  The prices will remain the same as the discount on labor will hit net revenue, and executives will cheer marginal growth over the next few years.

What Automation Is

Automation is not one big move, but it is small gradual improvements on equipment.  Improvements, that automate certain functions, and remove the need for people in a workplace.  A bank teller uses a machine to count and verify money to you, and software to create, maintain, and search records.  Automation is slow and not one big change, which happens everywhere at once.  Purchases of technology that automate processes or remove humans from businesses operations will develop automation.

Automation is a result as efficiency takes over the production process.  Automation brings time improvements and efficiency to the workplace so much so, that a realistic idea was born.  The idea that certain value propositions and business operations can have automation.  Who wants and who markets automation is an important question.  Accuracy, efficiency and employment of people in the United States are the biggest considerations for automation.  People are expensive and present challenge.  Demands for tax liabilities, workplace safety, human resources, competitive benefits packages, interest and living wage calculations raise costs of people and make us expensive to employ.

Automation may be a great and progressive step forward.  The public will hear automation creates better quality, cheaper prices, and increases in convenience.   This is true to some extent; automation can be more precise to manufacture items, and research financial services.  More precise, and a discount to human labor and workplace compliance.  More convenient in certain services, with a design to always have a professional demeanor and perfect hygiene.

Accuracy/Quality

Where will the efforts go in the manufacturing frontier?  Human research achieves quality in a product, development of a technology, and equipment.  Quality in Products will not be so much of an increase.  During the time of America’s large concentration on manufacturing in it’s economy; it was learned that substantial increases in quality, decreases sales.  Items that are high quality do not need to be replaced as frequently.

Engineering Limitations

In December of 2017, Apple admits to the release of an update that would slow the performance of the phone, so to prevent spontaneous shutdown and improve life of the battery.  Articles came to report customers feel the action that limits peak performance from their device, is with the intent to force an upgrade.  The message’s release is a response to some consumers who claim that Apple was purposely slowing down phones.

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Although, Apple did not admit to encourage sales of new models by slowing down previous models, intentional limits on the useful term of products and service offerings is a more frequent trend in business.  Look at Intuit Accounting Software Online, online features work for 3 years with a desktop version, and will require an update for anything else besides review of past records.  Most older accountant software from the company are not able to function beyond review archived records.  Software has been able to increase control over a product’s or service’s useful life as they can lock out and negate to fully function after a specific time period.  Advancements in quality may be able to increase the length of utility from products and services but there is no guarantee that the product’s useful life will not be limited for some other purpose.

Engineered Quality Perceptions

An item is released with a different look or new functionality and marketing campaigns help lower the quality of the previous model.  More functionalities does not necessarily mean better quality.

Board Members Expect Executives to grow business and sales every fiscal year.  The discount automation brings will not be seen in price decreases but be used to decrease expenses related to sales, to show growth for a period on the balance sheet; not to pass on to consumers.

Convenience

People waiting in line for a person to take their order will not be different from waiting in line for a machine waiting for someone to input their order.  People order the same way; an exchange of a machine and a person is not going to entirely eliminate lines.  The revenue that would have gone to paying someone, will hit a corporations bottom line after a minimal maintenance cost.

Compassion/Courtesy

If we accept automation, we give up rights, and access to natural resources to businesses.  Without the ability to work and save money, low income individuals will have fewer opportunities to obtain cash and skills, to live day by day and live their life, and will lose opportunities to one day attempt to create a value proposition all their own.

Encourages A Standard On People.

The current labor force/occupational model is great for keeping a standard among our people.  It encourages people to work with others; we learn to be patient with each other, be of service, and we have more chances to communicate and make small improvements to ourselves

The work environment helps maintain and promote a standard of personal behavior.  The three most important and encompassing of the many positive traits include:

1. Punctuality
2. Cooperation / Agreeableness
3. Self Improvement

Money’s Political Power

People receive money and decide what businesses to support and help sustain, we have a democratic dollar.  Automation will take money away from the public and consolidate more power to companies.

Answers to Automation

Tax Solution

Perhaps a tax, with a basis around a measure of reliance on automation, could be used to alleviate the reduction in available work.  Automation Reliance Tax / Human Employee Tax Break – Organizations are taxed according to use of automation, discouraging heavy use.  Or Companies receive tax breaks for employing people.

Why Universal Basic Income Is Not A Good Solution

Universal Basic Income (UBI) Laws can be established and those organizations with some to heavy automation reliance; receive the tax burden.  Universal Basic Income will take away the environments that encourage positive behavior, and access to jobs that can develop and support lives, and provide access to natural resources.  Even with UBI, citizens in the low income range will be forced to live on less, and with fewer opportunities to save for school, or business.  A Utopian concept where everyone receives money for free and commercial entities are heavily taxed to pay for it, may not be the Utopia it would seem.

Automation Today

There are two technological directions prevalent in automation at the moment; the first is the continuing creation of equipment, further automating functions in organizations; and the second is development of Artificial Intelligence.  Equipment Automation will decrease the amount of time an employee is needed at work.  Equipment is made to assist in current operations, eventually all the technologies will present to automate the equipment to fully function where it once only assisted.  Artificial Intelligence will reduce time with report generation and computation.  This could reduce the amount of people in management positions.  Chase bank has recently added large interior ATM’s and tellers always mention to use these; using these automated solutions support further automation efforts in the future.  Automation could be slowed if you consider how automation would impact you, react and understand how you would hope others would.

Conclusion

To this lady, where-ever you work; I hope no one automates you out of that process.  I can wait.