MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
IMF Lagarde calls for “growth friendly fiscal policies” and warns on automation
The International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said that to get the global economy moving at a faster pace it was necessary to share the benefits of capitalism, more global regulation and more action to protect workers against automation and robots. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesHas the IMF finally learnt from their failures? That sounded almost sensible.
Apr 22nd, 2017 - 07:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@DT
Apr 24th, 2017 - 04:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0I agree.
“...more global regulation and more action to protect workers against automation and robots.”
Absolutely. This doesn't sound like Madame Lagarde or the IMF at all.
We'll see in time.
The trouble is where do you draw the line? Robots make products considerably cheaper so the working class can access said products, yet on the other hand making products using manual labour puts the price up and the working class cannot afford these products.Which do you prefer Enrique?
Apr 24th, 2017 - 12:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If robots take over most of the jobs then the unit costs for the products will fall. However unemployment will increase and fewer people will have money to buy the products the robots make so the robots will be out of a job as consumption falls.
Apr 24th, 2017 - 06:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Square that circle !
It's difficult. I don't agree with keeping people doing jobs that robots can do just to create employment, but when whole industries disappear at once it's nearly impossible for all the workers to find new jobs, and it causes massive social problems. So the government should tax the robots in the short term in order to retrain the workers to do something else. In the long term we don't know if new jobs will appear or whether robots will take over more and more 'white collar' work as well. If there is no need for most people to work at all we are going to end up with a very different society one way or another.
Apr 24th, 2017 - 11:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0DT
Apr 25th, 2017 - 10:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0I agree. The factory manager's will get the large pay rises due to “profitability” and the shareholders will get big dividends. However, the rest of us will be skint !
What I am afraid of is that we will end up with a tiny and obscenely rich elite who own the robots, and a huge underclass of everyone else struggling to survive, with no prospect for improvement. If we are very lucky we could instead end up with a higher standard of living where people do work that interests them and robots do all the boring, unpleasant and dangerous jobs.
Apr 25th, 2017 - 06:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Right for a proletariat revolution !
Apr 26th, 2017 - 04:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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