BUSINESS LESSON
THE BIG DEBATE ON THE FUTURE OF WORK
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The Big Debate on the Future of Work
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the-big-debate-on-the-future-of-work/
Vocab Video Answers.
matching
answers 1. She is Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
2. No, she is not.
1. b
2. f 3. There was a spike of automation anxiety when machines were starting to take over jobs
3. d on farms and also in factories.
4. c
4. It surged again in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
5. a
6. i 5. It was about 17,000 longshoremen who were protesting automation on the piers.
7. h
8. e 6. Because there are not many of them left. Technology destroyed a lot of those jobs.
9. g
7. During this period, technology has displaced some 8 million farmers in the US, 7 million
10. j factory workers, over 1 million railroad workers, hundreds of thousands of telephone
operators, gas-pumpers, elevator attendants, travel agents, etc. Tons of jobs have died.
8. New technology creates jobs in a few ways: there are the direct jobs for people who
design and maintain the technology. Indirectly, when companies can do more with less,
they can expand, add new products, open new locations and they can lower prices to
compete. That means consumers can buy more of their products, too.
9. Yes, it has. This process is how the standard of living has improved over time −and it
has always required workers.
10. According to researchers at Oxford, 47% per cent of US jobs will be replaced by robots
in the next decade or two.
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Warmer questions
When was the last time you took a taxi or cab?
How much is too much to pay for someone who drives you to where you want to go?
In your daily life have you seen an increase in the number of automation in businesses? For example, using a
touchscreen instead of getting help from a waiter or speaking to a machine on the phone instead of an
operator.
Reading section
The robots are coming
Rising labour costs and the perennial quest for
productivity are driving businesses to automate.
Technology is playing a critical role in helping
humans work more efficiently. Since automation
has become an essential part of business
operations, robots are soon going to replace many
jobs that are today performed by humans. The on-
going assimilation of robots into the workforce
seems an inexorable reality, and so might be the
unemployment of a significant number of human
workers. Finding new positions for redundant
employees will definitely be the resulting challenge.
The Addison Lee Group has created a strategic alliance with
Oxbotica to offer self-driving services in the UK capital by
the year 2021. While there is general excitement
surrounding autonomous vehicles, concerns have been
raised regarding safety. In March, for example, one of
Uber’s autonomous vehicles killed a pedestrian in Tempe,
Arizona.
However, research states that while automation could
displace roughly 7 million jobs in the UK, it could also
create 7.2 million jobs, resulting in a boost in the order of
200,000 jobs.
There is much debate as to whether the economy as it
currently exists is able to create an equitable system where
people can work fewer hours and yet be able to survive.
Many say that the economy and society will be able to
survive and allow people to move to other forms of jobs.
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The change will encourage huge numbers of people to retrain or learn new trades. Others, however,
say that the change will be very different from the move between an agricultural economy and a
manufacturing one. The problem many are saying is that this change will lead to a level of
employment uncertainty that many in the population are unable to navigate. For example, is it
possible for everyone to become engineers, programmers, and data scientists so that automated
services can be maintained or expanded? The chances are that not everyone can become one, even
half the population may not be able to.
Coupled with this fact, AI is increasingly being used to design CPUs, code programs, and design airplanes. Many
middle-class jobs and professional services will be affected. IBM’s Watson AI software service is currently
deployed in Japanese insurance companies. Its first installation replaced 21 office workers. They also have plans to
move into healthcare, thus replacing the need for human doctors. Though the future is unknown, what is certain,
AI and automation will be a path which humanity has never crossed before.
Questions to consider:
Automated systems have replaced a lot of jobs in the last decades. But, is automation truly to blame for
unemployment?
Although automation does help drive profits and wealth, it also generates unemployment. Should not be
there some sort of limit that will prevent all jobs from being replaced by robots?
Robots may replace 800 million workers by 2030. However, will automated systems create more jobs than it
will destroy?
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Vocabulary matching
Using the words on the left match them to their real definitions.
Vocab Meaning Meaning
a. not easily convinced; having doubts or reservations.
1. Recession
b. a period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity
2. Forecast are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.
3. Robot c. a person who studies the future and makes predictions about it based on current
trends.
4. Futurist
d. a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically,
especially one programmable by a computer.
5. Sceptical
e. a person employed in a port to load and unload ships.
6. Automation
f. predict or estimate (a future event or trend)
7. Anxiety g. a fixed regular payment, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis, made by an
employer to an employee, especially to a manual or unskilled worker.
8. Longshoremen
h. a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or
something with an uncertain outcome.
9. Wage
i. the use of largely automatic equipment in a system of manufacturing or another
10. Research production process.
j. the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to
establish facts and reach new conclusions.
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Video: The big debate about the
future of work
Recent advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics have commentators worrying about the coming
obsolescence of the human worker. Some in Silicon Valley are even calling for a basic minimum income provided
by the government for everyone, under the assumption that work will become scarce. But many economists are
skeptical of these claims, because the notion that the the economy offers a fixed amount of work has been
debunked time and time again over the centuries and current economic data show no signs of a productivity
boom. Fortunately, we don't need to divine the future of the labor market in order to prepare for it.
https://www.esldebates.com/business-the-big-debate-on-the-future-of-work/
Watch the video and then answer the questions below
1. Who is Heidi Shierholz?
2. Is Heidi worried about the massive unemployment caused by robots?
3. What happened in the late 20s and the early 30s?
4. When did automation anxiety surge again?
5. What was the 1958 New York Times’ article about?
6. Why aren’t longshoremen known nowadays?
7. How many jobs has technology displaced from 1950 to 2010 in the US?
8. What are the benefits of new technology in the work field?
9. Has this process improved the living standards?
10. What did Oxford University researchers determine in 2013?
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Advantages of robots in Disadvantages of robots in
the workplace the workplace
Because robots do not get tired like Robots are intensifying the unemployment
humans do, the collaboration rate. Because of automated systems,
between humans and robots is human labour is no longer required in
reducing absenteeism. many factories and manufacturing plants.
As robots are meaningfully stronger Robots can handle prearranged tasks, but
and faster than humans, they can they normally cannot handle unexpected
also be used in any environmental situations.
condition where human safety is a
vast concern. Robots cannot think for themselves so
they can never improve their jobs outside
Robots alleviate humans from the pre-defined programming.
certain repetitive, hazardous, and
unpleasant tasks. Robots lack empathy and create
emotionless workplaces.
Automated systems make more
efficient use of materials, resulting An automated system can be extremely
in less scrap. costly to design, fabricate, and install.
Mechanisation and automation have
reduced the number of hours
worked on average per week by
factory workers.
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Potential debating topics
Automation is worsening economic disparity by replacing human workforce
worldwide.
Automation enhances economic growth worldwide by creating more job
opportunities for more people in more places.
By replacing hundreds of jobs, robots decrease the standard of living of entire
families.
Automation increased productivity leads to cheaper goods, greater spending, more
jobs and, ultimately, an increase of quality of life of lots of families across the globe.
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Infographic
Infographic
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