Apple And Samsung Suppliers in China Replace 60,000 Workers With Robots; McDonald's, ADIDAS Too

[From article]
Apple and Samsung supplier Foxconn has reportedly replaced 60,000 factory workers with robots.
One factory has "reduced employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000 thanks to the introduction of robots", a government official told the South China Morning Post.
Xu Yulian, head of publicity for the Kunshan region, added: "More companies are likely to follow suit."
China is investing heavily in a robot workforce.
[. . .]
"We are applying robotics engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to replace repetitive tasks previously done by employees, and through training, also enable our employees to focus on higher value-added elements in the manufacturing process, such as research and development, process control and quality control.
[. . .]
Economists have issued dire warnings about how automation will affect the job market, with one report, from consultants Deloitte in partnership with Oxford University, suggesting that 35% of jobs were at risk over the next 20 years.
Former McDonald's chief executive Ed Rensi recently told the US's Fox Business programme a minimum-wage increase to $15 an hour would make companies consider robot workers.
"It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who is inefficient, making $15 an hour bagging French fries," he said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966

Foxconn replaces '60,000 factory workers with robots'
BBC
May 25, 2016

* * *


A battery-powered robot serves dishes up to 8 hour a day in a restaurant in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province

[From article]
A former McDonald's CEO warned that robots will take over staff jobs at the fast food empire - because it's cheaper than employing humans.
Ed Rensi has said that buying highly skilled robotics is a cheaper alternative than employing people on minimum wage to work in the company's worldwide restaurants.
He warned that huge job losses are imminent, and commented that it would be 'common sense' to replace humans in the workplace.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/building-robot-mcdonalds-staff-cheaper-8044106

Building robot McDonald's staff 'cheaper' than hiring workers on minimum wage
10:18, 25 MAY 2016
UPDATED 17:32, 25 MAY 2016
BY JESSICA HAWORTH
The worrying forecast could threaten jobs at the fast food franchise, a former CEO of the company warns

* * *



[From article]
Adidas is relocating some of its shoe production from Asia to the company's homeland — but Germans shouldn't expect a jobs boom.
What is currently done by hand will soon be carried out by robots as part of what the firm calls an "automated revolution."
The sportswear giant unveiled its prototype "Speedfactory" on Tuesday — a 3,000-square-foot, high-tech facility in the southern German town of Ansbach.
The first 500 robot-made high-performance running shoes are scheduled to be rolled out later this year.
"We believe that this is pioneer work for a fully automated production process," Adidas spokesman Jan Runau told NBC News, adding that the facility will mean the firm "will be able to get the desired product to the customer much faster."
[. . .]
A 50,000-square-foot "Speedfactory" is due to be finished in Ansbach by the end of 2016. A second is expected to open in the U.S. next year while a third is also in the pipeline, according to Adidas.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/adidas-pulls-back-asia-robots-get-jobs-n579991

MAY 25 2016, 9:50 AM ET
Adidas Shifts Production — But Robots Get the Jobs
by ANDY ECKARDT

Pat Buchanan: Brief Lesson On Free Trade, Trade Deficit With China, Loss of US Jobs, Dying Cities

[From article]
Last year, China ran up the largest trade surplus in history, at our expense, $365 billion. We exported $116 billion in goods to China. China exported $482 billion worth of goods to us.
Using Census Bureau statistics, Terry Jeffrey of CNSNEWS.com documents how Beijing has, over decades, looted and carted off the greatest manufacturing base the world had ever seen.
In 1985, China’s trade surplus with us was a paltry $6 million. By 1992, when some of us were being denounced as “protectionists” for raising the issue, the U.S. trade deficit with China had crossed the $10 billion mark.
In 2002, it crossed the $100 billion mark. In 2005, the $200 billion mark. In each of the last four years, Communist China has run an annual trade surplus at the expense of the United States in excess of $300 billion.
[. . .]



Those trade deficits also explain the rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
Yet, with the exception of Trump, none of the GOP candidates seems willing to debate, defend or denounce the policies that eviscerated America — and empowered the People’s Republic.
Workers, however, know what our politicians refuse to discuss.
They are being sold out for the benefit of corporate elites who pay off those politicians with the big cash contributions that keep the parties flush.
[. . .]
Free trade is not a zero-sum game. The losers are the workers whose jobs, factories and futures are shipped abroad, and the dead and dying towns left behind when the manufacturing plants shut down.
America is on a path of national decline because, while we have been looking out for what is best for the “global economy,” our rivals have been looking out for what is best for their own nations.
[. . .]
Between the Civil War and World War I, under Republicans, the U.S. became the world’s greatest industrial power and a wholly self-sufficient nation. How? We taxed foreign goods entering the United States, but did not tax the profits of U.S. companies or the incomes of U.S. workers.
The difference between economic patriots and globalists who inhabit corporate-funded think tanks and public policy institutes is that the latter think of what is best for their corporate benefactors and the global economy. The former put America and Americans first.
[. . .]



Indeed, what great nation did free trade ever build?
As father of a united Germany, Chancellor Bismarck said, when he decided to build Germany on the American and not the British model, “I see that those countries which possess protection are prospering, and that those countries which possess free trade are decaying.”

http://buchanan.org/blog/trump-is-right-on-trade-124822

Trump Is Right on Trade
Friday - February 19, 2016 at 4:24 am
Patrick J. Buchanan

Incompetent Politicians Brought World To Edge Of World War, Domestic Chaos

[From article]
The same weekend the History Channel reran its series on World War I and II, where many leaders hoped for world peace, but instead guaranteed thirty years of war and 100 million deaths. Sadly, it is not in the nature of many maniacal leaders who prefer dictatorial powers to accept a world at peace. They reject a representative republic which is American-inspired. Some of our people think that we are the cause of so much destruction, but we have only been a nation for over two hundred years. We were late to the two World Wars and ended the conflagration.
[. . .]
The controlled and restrained approach to war-fare that President Obama has chosen in battling Islamic terrorists, whether they are ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Taliban, the Islamic mullahs of Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood has not contained the ideology. This appeasement reminds one of Britain’s Neville Chamberlain and his hope to avoid war. It was utterly futile then and will be so now.
[. . .]



This country is like a large ship. It cannot be swiftly turned around. The act itself renders us vulnerable as we are out of defensive position. No one president can reverse the many ills affecting America. It is time to remove the party bureaucracy and established bosses who have given us the present mess. Our economy is weak; our treasury is depleted through deficit spending, and we cannot manage our foreign policy objectives. The election in 2016 will give the nation the opportunity to end dependency and reverse the destruction of our manufacturing base. Yet, 45% of the nation is prepared at the outset to continue with similar policies (and elect a Democrat).
[. . .]
most Republican candidates cannot fix what ails our country. They have never created any business assets, personal wealth, maneuvered political obstacles, built anything, created significant numbers of jobs, managed destructive governmental rules, nor provided a national consensus for a new direction.
The election of 2008 was a wave election in which Obama was able to move the nation toward socialism. We must halt this movement to safeguard our Constitution and restore our national purpose.
[. . .]



Three remaining candidates do have experience as governors. This is a helpful background, but does not guarantee success. There is too much ego and too little statesmanship among our politicians; a far cry from our founding fathers. Ronald Reagan would not recognize this Republican Party
[. . .]
The effort to restore federalism is far from completed; under this concept, federal government has three competing branches and the states have sovereignty. The national politicians have usurped power over the past 100 years, but the greatness of America lies in its people and ability to renew its institutions as the need arises.
The rise of Trump is not a fluke, but it reflects anger with the establishment. His vocabulary is inflammatory; he is braggadocio to a fault. The establishment opponents do not understand the frustrations of the citizenry. Our conservative leaders have not redeemed their promise to halt Obama’s Executive Orders, his damage to our military, the bleeding of our treasury, the division among the races, illegal immigration at the expense of citizens and states, and loss of national pride and exceptionalism. Our nation is resilient, but our politicians have created this mess.
[. . .]



A president would be successful if a few of these issues could be corrected. The trajectory could be fixed, which would allow American ingenuity to repair the damage caused by politicians. The Federalist Papers were written to provide the intellectual basis for the Constitution after the failure of the Articles of Confederation was recognized. Our founders understood the desire for ever-increasing power and attempted to mitigate this risk. At various times the Congress and the Supreme Court have exerted their power, but they are overwhelmed by the president in our modern world. The system is subject to the mediocrity of our politicians.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/the_entrenched_parties_have_weakened_america_.html

January 13, 2016
The Entrenched Parties Have Weakened America
By Howard J. Warner

Robotics Threat To Humans

[From article]
In some parts of rural and regional Australia more than 60% of jobs could be lost, said CEDA Chief Executive Professor Stephen Martin.
"The pace of technological advancement in the last 20 years has been unprecedented and that pace is likely to continue for the next 20 years," he said.
Robots might even support lonely people
A more radical suggestion proffered in the report is the idea that robots could "offer support for lonely people".



If that seems hard to believe, just 10 years ago no-one thought there would be a car that drove itself.
Google has now designed such a car, which has driven around California without any accidents - except when a human driving another car rear-ended the robotic vehicle.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33160688

Australia's robot-led future puts squeeze on humans
17 June 2015

White House Secret Deal Giving Away American Jobs, Businesses

[From article]

In a letter to the president, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions expressed deep distrust that the deal is good for America, citing past free-trade deals that he said led to job cuts and didn't deliver on promises that trade deficits would be cut.
Sessions, quoting a former steel industry executive, said that U.S. free trade policy has become "unilateral trade disarmament and enablement of foreign mercantilism."
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would be one of the biggest trade deals in U.S. history, and would be among the first that could zip through Congress after it passes the controversial Trade Promotion Authority, or "fast track" legislation.
Sessions and others are worried that not enough is known about TPP. The agreement is being kept in a room only for visual review by those cleared to see it, leading Sessions and others to call it a "secret." He raised questions earlier last week.

He wrote Obama that TPP "will be kept a closely-guarded secret until after Congress agrees to yield its institutional powers and provide the administration with a guaranteed fast track to adoption."
Sessions drew special attention to a clause calling the treaty with Asian nations a "living agreement." Foes believe that those words will allow it to be changed and added to after Congress signs off. Sessions wants a promise that none of that will happen.
[What good are promises? The White House Never keeps them.]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2564101

Sessions hits 'secret' trade deal: 'Unilateral trade disarmament'
BY PAUL BEDARD

MAY 6, 2015 | 4:52 PM
* * *

[From article]
“Baltimore was once a city where tens of thousands of blue collar employees earned a good living in industries building cars, airplanes and making steel. … In 1970, about a third of the labor force in Baltimore was employed in manufacturing. By 2000, only 7 percent of city residents had manufacturing jobs.”
Put down blue-collar Baltimore alongside Motor City, Detroit, as another fatality of free-trade fanaticism.
[. . .]
And since Bill Clinton took office, the U.S. trade deficits have totaled $11.2 trillion.
An astronomical figure.
It translates not only into millions of manufacturing jobs lost and tens of thousands of factories closed, but also millions of manufacturing jobs that were never created, and tens of thousands of factories that did not open here, but did open in Mexico, China and other Asian countries.
[. . .]
Our political and corporate elites sold out working- and middle-class America — to enrich the monied class.
And they sure succeeded.
[. . .]
Though, like the alcoholic who does not realize his condition until he is lying face down in the gutter, it may be a while before we get out of the empire business and start looking out again, as our fathers did, for the American republic first. But that day is coming.

http://buchanan.org/blog/on-a-fast-track-to-national-ruin-15962

On a Fast Track to National Ruin
Friday - May 8, 2015 at 12:30 am
By Patrick J. Buchanan

Cambridge City Council Demands No Job Cuts At Harvard University Medical School

The Cambridge City Council remains focused on matters over which they have no jurisdiction. It continues to ignore egregious corruption that affects every citizen in the City--30 years of homicide and government corruption by James Bulger and his merry band of murderers. The show trial targets one man, who was allowed by the FBI, Boston and other local police, state and US prosecutors, to conduct his violent criminal business for 30 years. No mention of the extensive corruption by the City Council, the state legislature, the governor, any of the the five law schools, and government schools in Boston and Cambridge. The entertaining Cambridge City Council has misguided priorities.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/7/30/city-council-condemns-terminations/#

City Council Rebukes Medical School’s Decision To Cut 31 Custodial Contract Jobs
By MAYA JONAS-SILVER,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
July 30, 2013

Light Bulb Ban Kills Jobs

[From article]
"While employment tops America's agenda, Washington's war on the Edison bulb has killed jobs. Last September, General Electric padlocked its last US incandescent-bulb factory. "A variety of energy regulations will soon make the familiar lighting products produced at the Winchester [Virginia] Plant obsolete," GE announced last year. Thus, 200 Americans lost their jobs, which paid some $30 an hour.
In October 2008, GE shuttered six Ohio incandescent plants, leaving 425 workers in the dark. Meanwhile, labor-intensive CFL production is thriving -- in China."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/bulb_ban_dark_consequences_RFipt2jv0d2BZs0QmGD9aL

Bulb ban's dark consequences
Deroy Murdock
New York Post
Last Updated: 3:39 AM, July 8, 2011
Posted: 10:39 PM, July 7, 2011

Labor Statistics Unreliable

 

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/bad_feelings_grow_about_employment_qLBIbzzim4KJITI9zj3ldK 

Bad feelings grow about employment report

New York Post 

Last Updated: 8:21 AM, February 4, 2010

Posted: 12:29 AM, February 4, 2010

When the Labor Department released its employment figures for January 2009, it subtracted an astounding 356,000 jobs from the overall count because it felt that small companies were quietly going out of business.<p> </p><br> It couldn't prove this was really happening.<p> </p><br> But the department's computers made that adjustment anyway -- and much more optimistic ones over the 11 other months of 2009 -- because something called the birth/death model instructed them to do so.<p> </p><br> The model is a guess -- and a bad one, it turns out -- at how many companies too small to be reached in the official monthly survey are creating jobs (the "birth" part) or eliminating them ("death").<p> </p><br> Prepare yourself. It's déjà vu time.<p> </p><br> Just like it did last January, the Labor Department will be making pessimistic assumptions in tomorrow's employment report.<p> </p><br> Worse, it will also be correcting some of the errors this adjustment made in the past, resulting in an even gloomier job picture (if you can believe it) for the last year.<p> </p><br> The<p> </p><br>Obamaadministration isn't supposed to have the January figures yet. So it must just be an incredible coincidence that the president began his full-court press for a jobs program last week.<p> </p><br> The 356,000 downward adjustment for the birth/death model contributed to Jan. 2009's overall employment figure being frighteningly bad -- the loss of 741,000 jobs for that month.<p> </p><br> And that started a string of monthly job losses -- 681,000 in February, 652,000 in March, 519,000 in April, etc. -- that turned 2009 into one of the most dreadful labor markets of all time.<p> </p><br> I warned readers the day before last January's jobs report that the figures were likely to be worse than anyone expected. That column was headlined: Why You Will See Huge Drop in January Jobs (2/5/09).<p> </p><br> Consider yourself warned again.<p> </p><br> Just a week ago, the experts thought there would be an increase of 50,000 jobs in January. As of yesterday, that optimism had been pared down to a miniscule rise of just 13,000 jobs.<p> </p><br> Either would be a miracle considering the statistical hoops that the Labor Department puts its numbers through. The experts expected job growth in December too, but the government reported a loss of 85,000 jobs.<p> </p><br> For the record, an outfit called TrimTabs yesterday said its independent calculations showed that the economy lost 104,000 jobs in January. It bases that estimate on daily income tax deposits at the US Treasury.<p> </p><br> Another job tabulator that tracks payrolls, Automatic Data Processing (ADP), thinks the January job loss was 22,000. That's the smallest monthly decline in two years.<p> </p><br> Neither TrimTabs nor ADP is trying to guess the Labor Department's number. Both, instead, track company payrolls or tax receipts and forego all the guesstimates, like seasonal adjustments and the birth/death models, used by the Labor Department.<p> </p><br> A few months ago the Labor Department looked as if it was going to correct the mistakes caused by its birth/death model.<p> </p><br> But insaner heads prevailed, and it now seems as if no corrective measures are being taken.<p> </p><br> So, expect the DoL to reduce the overall job count, before seasonal adjustments, by the same magnitude as last year's 356,000. In short, Labor thinks 356,000 jobs were cut by small companies that it couldn't reach by phone because -- well, naturally -- their phones were cut off.<p> </p><br> And expect the DoL to also report a so-called "benchmark revision" to its figures that show the 2009 economy had roughly 820,000 to 840,000 fewer jobs than were originally thought.<p> </p><br> Bottom line: I hope I'm wrong, but tomorrow's number has a good chance of being disappointing to those who think job totals will increase.<p> </p><br> I saved the good news for last.<p> </p><br> I'm going to make the same prediction that I (accurately) made last year.<p> </p><br> While I don't know if companies will actually be hiring in the months ahead, the stats should start looking better. That will be caused both by the full Census Bureau hiring and an optimistic turn in the birth/death model assumptions that always occurs in spring.<p> </p><br> On that latter point, the Labor Department's computers figure lots of small companies suddenly appear, like crocuses.<p> </p><br> *<p> </p><br> Here's one more matter that will be of interest to everyone.<p> </p><br> Will the unemployment rate stay at 10 percent, as the experts are predicting?<p> </p><br> As the recession gets longer, more and more unemployed people get disqualified from being included in the U-3 calculation -- through a separate telephone survey -- that produces that 10 per cent figure. That's because they stop looking for work.<p> </p><br> So, the unemployment rate could actually im prove even as the job market gets worse.<p> </p><br> The stat to watch is the U- 6 figure that mea sures underemployed peo ple, which last month was at 17.3 percent. That's where people formerly on the U-3 jobless list end up before they finally quit looking for work and disappear altogether.<p> </p><br>john.crudele@nypost.com <p> </p><br>

John Crudele

US Economy is Broken; Problem is Statistics


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/seasonal_adjustments_can_hide_bad_CK5tMqQVXOdkq8qH3RmaxN

Seasonal adjustments can't hide bad economy
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 1:58 PM, October 1, 2009
Posted: 2:15 AM, October 1, 2009