1. Are Robots Taking Our Jobs Today there is a renewed concern that technological advancement may displace much of the manufacturing (and other) work force In 1983 the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research forecast the existence of 50,000 to 100,000 industrial robots in the United States by 1990, resulting in a net loss of some 100,000 jobs

2. Are Robots Taking Our Jobs Our current industrial policy creates jobs that are “lower-skilled and routine, eventually to be replaced by robots and computers. Rice University computer science professor Moshe Vardi says that in 25 years "driving by people will look quaint; it will look like a horse and buggy. So there go many of the approximately 4 million driving jobs out there

3. Are Robots Taking Our Jobs Smarter computers mean that any mid-paying job that involves a routine: data entry, number crunching, operations, and so on, will be replaced as well, which will remove a big piece of the approximately 7 million business and financial operations jobs that exist in the United States

4. Are Robots Taking Our Jobs Some think 50 percent unemployment is optimistic. Software entrepreneur Martin Ford predicts something closer to 75 percent unemployment by the end of the century Our new industries simply aren't labor- intensive. And those lower end jobs are low paying, and may also end up being replaced as robots get better at specialized tasks

5. Are Robots Taking Our Jobs A 10 percent unemployment rate is a mere fifth of what some experts predict we'll see in the future Not far fetched science fiction-level technology Specialized algorithms that can currently land jet airplanes, trade autonomously on Wall Street, or beat nearly any human being at a game of chess

6. Are Robots Taking Our Jobs The mechanization of agriculture. In the late 1800s About three quarters of workers in the U.S. were employed in agriculture. Today, the number is around 2-3%. Advancing technology irreversibly eliminated millions of jobs.

7. Are Robots Taking Our Jobs As labor-saving technologies improve, some workers lose their jobs in the short run. Production also becomes more efficient. That leads to lower prices for the goods and services produced leaves consumers with more money to spend on other things.

8. Are Robots Taking Our Jobs That seems to be exactly what happened with agriculture Prices fell as efficiency increased, and then consumers went out and spent their extra money elsewhere