and therefore never send to know
for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
-John Donne
Are we involved?
Seemingly femtoseconds following the announcement that Foxconn had laid off some 60,000 workers-in a single factory!-and replaced them with robots, the online world was crackling with stories, most of which were aghast at the spectacle of humans getting switched out for robots on assembly lines in a factory in the city of Kunshan, China.
At the risk of being too somber
The tenor of the articles dripped with doom, as if announcing the epicenter of a long-expected plague that had suddenly burst forth with rapid contagion and no cure. No one was safe. Witness these 60,000 poor souls turned out of work for no earthly reason except that they were human.
Well, human but highly paid; ageing rapidly; and unable to offer up the kinds of productivity levels that drive flashy revenue increases. All of which are in disfavor in New Factory China.
Millions lost their jobs silently. Only the unemployment filings gave a good reckoning as to what was happening; and even at that, there were no easy reasons why. When President Kennedy addressed Congress in April of 1961 asking why the U.S. unemployment rate was a persistent 7 percent, especially amid general financial prosperity, Congress shrugged. Its members had no clue.
Even Kennedy had not taken notice until things got to 7 percent; the plague had had its beginning years prior to his addressing Congress. The nation was oblivious to what was happening. Only the dispossessed knew, and they only at the last possible moment.
Assembling telephones for Western Electric was a good, middleclass job (see photo above). The ladies were human but highly paid; ageing rapidly; and unable to offer up the kinds of productivity levels that drive flashy revenue increases. All of which were in disfavor with corporate America.
One by one the Western Electric ladies got wacked, and then there were none.
Kunshan’s loss of 60,000 jobs in a single factory seems dreadful, but it isn’t. More of the same is on the way, much more. We have yet to scratch the surface of job-loss outcomes like those millions of vanishing jobs way back in 1961.
Technology giveth and taketh away
In fact, of Kunshan’s population of 2.5 million, 75 percent are migrants who years before had floated into the city to work at the more than 600 factories situated there. That’s like the entire population of New Mexico suddenly setting up housekeeping just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah.
The permanent residents of Kunshan are happy with the 60,000 departures and pine for more, but it’s those same good riddance migrants who brought prosperity with them. Those 7 out of every 10 residents spent their pay in that fair city, escalating the cities annual per capita income to $4,000, a best in China.
As factory populations rapidly depart en masse, Kunshanites may well lament their going. Robots don’t order takeout or frequent the 7/11 or beauty shops or any place else; machines just work-more and more cheaply with each passing year-and never militate for a raise or better working conditions.
And the dispossessed of Kunshan, earning their livings with their hands, will go west to places like Chongqing-nearly a thousand miles distant-to maybe work assembling computers where Hewlett-Packard builds all of its laptops. West means home for many of the 60,000. Next February the New Year’s trip back to see family will be easier.
Consider this
Asia is the first place on the planet to physically contend with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. There are many Kunshans in China, and many more to come. China is pioneering the beginnings of a new epoch in mass automation. We’ll all need to learn from the struggles and victories of each and every one.
For Foxconn’s part, Terry Gou, chairman and CEO of Hon Hai Precision, parent of Foxconn, has also moved west, all the way to India where he’s investing $5 billion for assembly plants.
India has also just replaced China as the top destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)…and undoubtedly the site for many new Kunshans to come.
And then technology giveth: A boom in solar and wind power jobs led the way to a global increase in renewable energy employment to more than 8 million people in 2015; hydropower another 1.3 million. Technology jobs unheard of less than ten years ago.
Are we involved?
