"We won’t allow driverless cars in India," said Nitin Gadkari, India's minister for Road Transport, Highways, and Shipping, according to the Hindustan Times. "I am very clear on this. We won’t allow any technology that takes away jobs."
When I first saw this news article I thought it was incredibly bizarre. The Transport Minster of India vowing to ban self driving cars to protect jobs and taking the luddite position against any technology which takes away jobs from people. In debates people often say that having a job gives people purpose, and that there could be socio-psychological consequences which go with unemployment.
Whilst I agree that there are negative consequences associated with unemployment I would also have to say that there are different reasons people work. As an American I see a job as a means to an end to accomplish a goal. I for instance would like freedom and security and to achieve that requires building wealth. It's not the case in my personal opinion that a job is an end in itself for me and perhaps many people but is more a means to an end.
In the statement by the Indian government official it appears that the jobs themselves are the end and that everything must be done to protect the jobs. Does anyone on Steemit agree that jobs are more than a means to an end? Does it matter what the job is at least?
Reminds me of an old story attributed to many, but I'll put in this version here...
While touring China, a businessman came upon a team of nearly 100 workers building an earthen dam with shovels. The businessman commented to a local official that, with an earth-moving machine, a single worker could create the dam in an afternoon.
The official’s curious response was, “Yes, but think of all the unemployment that would create.” “Oh,” said the businessman, “I thought you were building a dam. If it’s jobs you want to create, then take away their shovels and give them spoons!”
Lol too good.
Good decision, in the dense populated country like India....
Why is this a good decision? Can you explain?
We should go and follow the new technologies step by step....first we should use to with the new inventions and then we should implement it...
This is obsured, a job is a job no matter what job it is , if it's making you a living or getting you food on the table , it should be appreciated . Many people even in the US choose not to work and feed their kids unemployment , when they could actually work or collecting checks from the government when they do not need, our hard working tax dollars go to these kinda people .
What is your opinion of this?
Well after watching the first one , I can certainly say that having an education doesn't guarantee you a job, it does not guarantee you anything . My brother is 26 now he has 2 degrees and still jobless . It happens it doesn't mean that you don't make use of the education you earned , you can always create your own ideas to start a small business of your own , it's the best if you come around these situations , u educate yourself to face the outside world , is this how it's suppose to be ? There's nothing wrong with living with your parents , they are your parents, use that to a benefit , save money and start something of your own if the job world itself is not fit for you
The other side of it is the psychological side. I think a lot of bullying goes on against people who don't have the best of luck or the easiest life. This can cause people to give up on themselves and of course if that happens then self improvement stalls and without self improvement wealth usually isn't going to build.
A person can have a job which sucks and doesn't help them to self improve also. So a lot of people do have jobs which don't generate wealth. Should those jobs be automated so that people can take jobs which actually generate wealth?
Bullying does exist but why would that not motivate people to work harder to prove to themselves and others that "they can do it" that "it's possible" people shouldn't be handed the wrong , a serious of tests that prove they can stand the job and know how to advance it , is a winner
The problem isn't that wealth isn't plentiful. Wealth in how I think about it is your assets minus your liabilities. Your assets is whatever you own, your knowledge, your body, your mind, your productive assets such as businesses, your stocks, or whatever it is.
The wealth is in these assets and the jobs get created as almost a byproduct or side effect of property ownership. For example if you own a home (real estate) then you can charge rent, and using the money from being a landlord you can create "jobs" for people to help you build house #2. It all starts in my opinion with property ownership, the legal ability to own yourself and then the ability to rent what you own.
A person who has a lot of knowledge can sell that knowledge or rent the service. A person who only has time can rent their time. A person who is physically beautiful can use their body and rent or license their image.
So I guess the first thing to do if a person is unemployed is to work on themselves to improve their intrinsic (natural wealth). This could be reading books, getting an education, getting fit and in shape, developing a sense of humor, so as long as a person is on a consistent path of improvement I do think the natural wealth can increase.
The problem though is there isn't a lot of opportunities, or they aren't easy to find if they do exist, and people who have wealth aren't always matched with money. In many cases there is exploitation and corruption, where people who have the wealth never get paid for it for whatever reason.
So I would say it's not about the job but about building the wealth. A job is just renting something out in exchange for money. This could be writing code for a programmer, or driving an Uber, or if a person is physically fit making videos on Youtube and personal training others. But I think the video is correct, there is no career paths and most people are fooled into thinking there is.
There are just opportunities and risks, being prepared or unprepared, and becoming the best version of yourself or not. Best version of yourself includes every aspect of yourself which you can improve.
No one is actually good at everything or good at something when they start to do it , with time you learn from your mistakes , yes there are points where you want to give up , but without the skills we acquired , what's the point of backing off then?
Everyone is unique in their own ways giving them the ability to find their "wealth" you can use yourself in different days , physically mentally or any other ways . People need to stop giving up and try because if they don't actually get out there and try something without saying it's not possible , how is that just ?
He could look at more ways of creating job opportunities, not trying to stop technological advancement......it's illogical!
Is it about creating jobs for India or creating wealth for India? India having a lot of people means it has a lot of wealth whether or not they have jobs.
Then transforming those immense wealth will suffice, just like my country Nigeria- Bountiful Resources yet unemployment and low standard of living abounds.
Yes but if you have the resources you have the wealth without the money. Money and wealth aren't always 1:1. Honestly it's unfair and somewhere there is exploitation going on.
You are very right @dana-edwards i think Indian Government and Nigerian Government share the same Mentality.....maybe its cos of the Brits Colonizing us, i wish i know!
These technologies take away from the lively hood of our societies, causing massive poverty from job lost
To understand government stance you might want to understand some Priorities.
Countries like Japan and US are very capital intensive countries and less Labor Intensive like India or China. US needs innovations at higher priority that can reduce the need for human labor and in case there is a job loss (due to automation or financial crisis) US has a minimum basic support system to support the family during transition phase.
In labor intensive countries like India or China, THE PRIORITY is not automation, the priority is job creation. Two biggest cab aggregators in India Uber and its rival Ola has over 1 Million indirect employees (drivers). If at an average each employee is supporting a family of 4, this means 4 million people do not sleep hungry. That's just stats for two companies- in total driving constitute 5 million jobs in India (thus 20 million people do not sleep hungry)
The current PRIORITY of Govt. is imparting Education to the grassroot level such that people take up more white collar jobs (automation is killing that too), and the government is not capable of providing Minimum Basic Support income to all the unemployed. Thus Driverless cars can wait for now.
India has always supported technology, India will support Driverless cars and Robotics and all the next big things too... but before that India needs to set the house in order.
In nutshell, the Transition will come but at a slower pace cus we need to adjust our priorities and not run after the next big things.