Automation Advances are taking jobs from workers

Dismissing vague warnings that robots are coming for our jobs is pretty easy. Not so easy? Dismissing hard evidence that they've already arrived and are doing those jobs better and more cheaply than we ever could.

Those are the facts the workers of the world faced when news broke earlier this year that a Chinese factory increased its production by 250 percent and dropped its defect rate by 80 percent by replacing 90 percent of its human workforce with automated machines. In fact, the transition to machines has been so successful, the plant may soon cut its remaining workforce from 60 to just 20 human workers.

That factory is just one example of how automation is putting the future of human labor in jeopardy.

Experts are predicting that up to 47 percent of jobs in the United States may be replaced by automated systems—and that's all in the next decade. If that's not enough, manufacturing jobs aren't the only ones at risk. Automated systems are proving that they are capable of handling everything from "low-skill" work like flipping burgers and driving taxis to white-collar professions like managing hedge funds and preparing tax returns.

Researcher after researcher has concluded the same thing — automation is going to put a lot of people out of work very soon — but what people can't agree on is what we should do about it.

Some, like President Barack Obama, recommend focusing on education and training to prepare people to take on new types of jobs once their jobs are replaced. Others recommend putting systems in place that would make having a job a guarantee.

Still others think a tax on robots could be the solution. Perhaps the most seriously discussed option, however, is universal basic income (UBI).

So what exactly is it?

THE 411 ON UBI

The idea behind a UBI system is that every member of a society regularly receives a set amount of unconditional money from the government or a public institution. How much money, how often it is given, who supplies it, and other variables are all open to interpretation.

Proponents of such a system say its benefits would be multifold. With so many people expected to lose their jobs in the coming decades, UBI would be a way for the government of a country to ensure it doesn't see a drastic increase in poverty due to unemployment. They point to the encouraging results of past studies in their support of UBI, noting how some trials have revealed a link between UBI and better health, while others have noted a drop in the usage of "temptation goods" like alcohol and tobacco in societies with a UBI in place, particularly if those societies are in underdeveloped nations.