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Will newer technologies replace Blue collar jobs?

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Jean Laval Chue Him Director| Stella Aurorae Accountants Pty Ltd Sydney, Nsw, Australia
Newer technologies will not affect white collar jobs only but also blue collar jobs. With 3D printing and Pre-fabs all components of a building for example can be made and even electrical conduits and plumbing conduits can be inbuilt in the 3D pre-fab. Just connect the parts.All components must be made Plug-and-Play. Anybody can do it with a minimum skills. The Design will need to be such that the work is just Plug and Play. Just like connecting a mouse or keyboard to a computer. The work of tradies will mostly fixing old installations.
Please let me know what you think guys.
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Patrick Rose Cybersecurity Consultant| RMPT Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
It is certainly a common (mis-) conception that robots will take everyone's jobs. (Usually followed by an appeal for public support for the concept of a universal wage.)

Given that there are approximately 383 million factory workers (out of about 3½ billion workers in total) and robots have been deployed to factories for more than forty years it is pertinent to ask how endangered these jobs are.

Question: how many robots are there, right now, in the factories of the world?
Answer: Less than five million, replacing an estimated total of 13 million workers. (2024 had 4.2M, up 10% year-on-year and most were deployed to Asia.)

And, lest we all forget, there will always be supervisors needed to watch the robots; just like there are no jobs for elevator controllers anymore, the most dangerous, dirty, and dull jobs (including production lines in factories) will be replaced so that humans can fill higher functions.
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1 reply by Jean Laval Chue Him
Mar 17, 2025 10:17 PM
Jean Laval Chue Him
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Yes Patrick your observation is right, but I wonder if everybody replaced by robot will have the skills and knowledge to do the higher functions. Or whether they will be cast aside to the dump of humanity technological evolution.

I wonder if we the society as a whole should start thinking how to ensure decent living standards for future generations who are not able to do the higher more complex functions.

When we see countries like the UK now trying to cut social benefits, I think it is a worrying trend.
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Jean Laval Chue Him Director| Stella Aurorae Accountants Pty Ltd Sydney, Nsw, Australia
Mar 16, 2025 12:11 AM
Replying to Patrick Rose
...
It is certainly a common (mis-) conception that robots will take everyone's jobs. (Usually followed by an appeal for public support for the concept of a universal wage.)

Given that there are approximately 383 million factory workers (out of about 3½ billion workers in total) and robots have been deployed to factories for more than forty years it is pertinent to ask how endangered these jobs are.

Question: how many robots are there, right now, in the factories of the world?
Answer: Less than five million, replacing an estimated total of 13 million workers. (2024 had 4.2M, up 10% year-on-year and most were deployed to Asia.)

And, lest we all forget, there will always be supervisors needed to watch the robots; just like there are no jobs for elevator controllers anymore, the most dangerous, dirty, and dull jobs (including production lines in factories) will be replaced so that humans can fill higher functions.
Yes Patrick your observation is right, but I wonder if everybody replaced by robot will have the skills and knowledge to do the higher functions. Or whether they will be cast aside to the dump of humanity technological evolution.

I wonder if we the society as a whole should start thinking how to ensure decent living standards for future generations who are not able to do the higher more complex functions.

When we see countries like the UK now trying to cut social benefits, I think it is a worrying trend.

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