1

BANGLADESH UNIVERSITY OF PROFESSIONALS (BUP)

Course Name: Intermediate Macroeconomics II

Course Code: ECON- 2402
Topic: Machines vs Human Labor

Submitted By

Name: Shundhi Shanai Bhuiyan

Roll No.: 18141104
Session: 2018-19
Department of Economics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
(FASS) Submitted to
Bangladesh University of
Shahanewaz Sharif
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
(FASS)
Bangladesh University of Professionals
(BUP)

Submission Date: of stContents

Table31 October, 2021
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 2

1. Introduction:................................................................................................................................4

2. Analysis:......................................................................................................................................4

2.1 The rise of the robot workforce:............................................................................................4

2.2 Loss of Employment:.............................................................................................................5

2.3 Jobs Outlook 2022:................................................................................................................6

2.4 Advancement of Capitalism:..................................................................................................6

2.5. Two points where humans are better than machines:...........................................................7

2.5.1 Creativity:........................................................................................................................7

2.5.2 Relationships:..................................................................................................................7

3. Learning Outcomes:.....................................................................................................................7

3.1 Advantages of Machines over Humans:................................................................................7

4. Five ways for workers to win in the robot age:...........................................................................8

4.1 Industries need a shared approach to managing workforce transformations:........................8

4.2 Businesses must define their companies’ augmentation strategy:.........................................9

4.3. Governments must activate modern labor market policies:..................................................9

4.4 Policymakers and investors need to consider a new approach to job creation in the Fourth
Industrial Revolution (4IR):.......................................................................................................10

4. 5. All stakeholders need a common language for defining and assessing skills:...................10

5.Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………. 10

6. Reference:………………………………………………………..……………………..……..1
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 3

Machines vs Human Labor

Abstract

There have been postulates that machines make work easier. But there is also an argument that
machines are not as creative as human. In this paper we will discuss about the conflict between
machines and human labor by discussing the advantage-disadvantage of human labor and
machines. At the end there is a discussion about the way for human to win in this robotic age.
From my study I find that though the machines make our work easier and time consuming but it
also increase unemployment.

Key Words: Machines, Human labor, Creativity, Efficiency, Wages.

MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 4

1. Introduction:
Almost every day, people of influence claim that machines will soon threaten the existence of
humanity. According to Stephen Hawking, a well-known cosmologist, "The development of full
artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." People, companies and
organizations have turned to research on machines as a possible replacement of human labor.
Several questions come to mind, the biggest one being: Will hostile artificial intelligence (AI)
destroy humanity? However, it is more practical to focus on questions and answers that
demonstrate the effect robotics have on our current lives. Most of people are still relatively
confident that machines will not become intelligent enough to be ready to suppose for
themselves and take over. However, the yank poet, Diane Ackerman, once said, “Artificial
intelligence is growing up fast, as are robots whose facial expressions can elicit fellow feeling
and create your mirror neurons quiver.” She isn't alone in these thoughts with plenty of theorists
supporting this read that developing computer science an excessive amount of may well be
dangerous. One individual who has stood enter recent years in Tesla corporate executive Elon
Musk. He has denoted voluminous greenbacks to the long run of life institute- an institute that
uses cash to keep computer science “robust and beneficial.” the opposite aspect of the argument
is that irrespective of however intelligent machines become, they're created by humans and that
they will ne'er become as intelligent as their creators. Once yank author Elbert Hubbard claimed
that “one machine can do the work of fifty standard men however no machine can do the work of
1 extraordinary man.”
2. Analysis:
A world dominated by machines that subject humans as a supply of energy. A robotic system
that acquires its own mind and decides to destroy all traces of the human race. A planet facing
rebellion from machines now not caning to place up with the humiliations they're subjected to by
man. fantasy has provided United States with many arguments to create us believe that the
human vs machines conflict will finish badly. because the world becomes more and more
computerized, the talk around whether or not our society are going to be able to adapt to the
revolution of machines grows accordingly. There are some consequences of selecting machines
over human labor.
2.1 The rise of the robot workforce: It’s hard to argue against automation when
statistics are clearly illustrating its potential. The latest evidence comes out of a Chinese factory
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 5

in Dongguan City. The factory recently replaced 90 percent of its human workforce with
machines, and it led to a staggering 250 percent increase in productivity and a significant 80
percent drop in defects.

Changying Precision Technology Company’s factory used to need 650 human workers to
produce mobile phones. Now, the factory is run by 60 robot arms that work around the clock
across 10 production lines. Only 60 people are still employed by the company — three are
assigned to check and monitor the production line, and the others are tasked with monitoring
computer control systems. Any remaining work not handled by humans is left in the capable
hands of machines.

According to Luo Weiqiang, general manager of the factory, the number of people employed
could drop to just 20, and given the level of efficiency achieved by automation, it won’t be long
before other factories follow in their footsteps.

2.2 Loss of Employment: The world is going through a workplace revolution that will
bring a seismic shift in the way humans work alongside machines and algorithms, according to
new research by the World Economic Forum. By 2025 more than half of all current workplace
tasks will be performed by machines as opposed to 29% today. Such a transformation will have a
profound effect on the global labor force, however in terms of overall numbers of new jobs the
outlook is positive, with 133 million new jobs expected to be created by 2022 compared to 75
million that will be displaced. With the advent of machines, an individual using a machine can
perform work which would have needed several people to carry out. A machine will only need
one person to operate it and then carry out duties which needed many people. An example is the
transport industry. Initially horses used to be the main means of transport. Each horse would
need one individual to transport a person. However, the horses have been replaced by vehicles,
plains and trains. These machines have completely replaced the need for horses and their
operators. For one horse, one operator was needed and only one person could be transported.
Currently, a train can carry one thousand people with only a few operator. In the normal case,
transportation of one thousand people would have needed one thousand operator of the horses.
However, the train has replaced the rest of operators rendering them jobless. The combination of
the fact that a machine can carry out of work of several individuals at the same time and do work
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 6

faster than humans makes it displace human being effectively. A machine will perform a certain
duty faster than human beings and at the same time perform duties of several human beings.
Most organizations will opt to use machines which will reduce the cost of operation by reducing
the number of people needed for the job. Machines are therefore being a favorite for most
manufacturer. They will buy and install as many machines as possible so as to minimize human
labor as much as possible. The end result will be a situation where very few people are needed
for the running of an organization while the rest of the people are replaced by machines.
Based on a survey of chief human resources officers and top strategy executives from companies
across 12 industries and 20 developed and emerging economies (which collectively account for
70% of global GDP), the report finds that 54% of employees of large companies would need
significant re- and up-skilling in order to fully harness the growth opportunities offered by the
Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the same time, just over half of the companies surveyed said
they planned to reskill only those employees that are in key roles while only one third planned to
reskill at-risk workers.
While nearly 50% of all companies expect their full-time workforce to shrink by 2022 as a result
of automation, almost 40% expect to extend their workforce generally and more than a quarter
expect automation to create new roles in their enterprise.

2.3 Jobs Outlook 2022: Within the set of companies surveyed, respondents predicted a
decline of 984,000 jobs and a gain of 1.74 million jobs between now and 2022. Extrapolating
these trends across those employed by large firms in the non-agricultural workforce of the 20
economies covered by the report suggests that 75 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the
division of labor between humans, machines and algorithms, while 133 million new roles may
emerge that are more adapted to this new division of labor.

2.4 Advancement of Capitalism: Machines reduce the need of the company

management of employing human workers. The organization will only need to buy a machine
with making investment and then the organization will not pay human beings wages. The money
which was supposed to be paid as wages is maintained by the organizations as profit. Thus, the
machines will divert the money which was supposed to be given to several people to the pocket
of one individual. The owner of the company will continue increasing his profit while the rest of
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 7

the people who would have served as employees to the company continue getting poorer as they
do not have income. The income for more than a will end up going to one person or the
organizers. This means that the people who have the capital to buy machines are more likely
become rich while those without capital will become poor.
Replacement of Human Beings with Robots: Part of the functions of human beings has been
replaced by machines and robots. In some cases, the functions of human beings have been
replaced completely. For example, in the transit of goods in production from one place to other
has been replaced completely by robots. These robots are able to move the goods at a very high
speed without any delays. The machine will work without fatigue and thus can work for even
twenty four hours per day. Some of the robots will need the input of human beings as a controller
while other will not need such a controller. Depending on whether the robot need human control
or not, there can be complete replacement or partial replacement. Robot which need some human
control are better because they do not replace completely the human labor. However, some
machines and robots will replace humans completely since they need no human input in their
running. They are just programmed and thus run without needing any input from human being.

2.5. Two points where humans are better than machines:

2.5.1 Creativity: Creativity is a simple answer here. Humans are good at thinking outside
of the box. In other words, Humans are good at seeing the big picture. It’s the ancillary silos of
industry that spark creativity and innovation. Having biologists solve chemistry problems, ballet
dancers show football players the best way to dance the line, and theater actors work with
fortune 500 CEOs to reveal their humanity are a few things that machines aren’t able to think of.

2.5.2 Relationships: Human are social animals. Humans need to work together.
Machines do not. Humans are good at understanding the give and take of a relationship, whereas
a robot might be a know-it-all and lose its friends pretty quickly.

3. Learning Outcomes: There are many advantages of having machines and there are also
many disadvantages of having machines in the place of humans.
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 8

3.1 Advantages of Machines over Humans: Machines have many advantages as

compare to humans. First, machine works faster than human. Machines have a very high
efficiency and they perform certain tasks at a faster rate than humans. A machine can perform
work which human being can take a thousand days in one day. This make it efficient for the
performance of most of duties especially where the time is a limiting factor.
Machines have an advantage that they do not get exhausted. As opposed to human labor, most of
machines can work for a full day without getting fatigued. This makes them be able to perform
tasks which need to be performed throughout.
Also machines are not paid. Although their acquisition is very expensive, they do not need to be
paid a wage. There is also a benefit that machines are able to product which is similar. A
machine will operate in the same way and will not vary with time. And most importantly
machines are not vulnerable to corruption.

3.2 Disadvantages of Machines over Human Beings: Machines are at time not able to
completely replace human beings. Machines are not able to think and conform to the situation at
hand. A machine will not be able to adjust according to the situation so as to make it possible for
it to do the best at the time.
Machines have reduced the need for human labor. Human labor has lost mean because of its cost
and its effectiveness. Organizations sack people and their duties taken over by machines.
Employees will lose their way of life and make them baggers. Most people will become jobless
as the machines take over all the functions over humans. An organization will depend almost
completely on the machine for the labor.

4. Five ways for workers to win in the robot age: Here are five conditions for creating
a positive future of work.

4.1 Industries need a shared approach to managing workforce transformations:

Technology adoption looks very different across different industries. For example, while
companies in every industry are considering introducing some use of wearable electronics in the
next 5 years, in the health and healthcare industry over 70% of companies have such plans. In the
infrastructure industry, less than a quarter of companies plan to do so. The subsequent
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 9

consequences for workers are very different. How then can industries – and their workers –
prepare? Each industry needs its own roadmap, using industry-level data on which roles are
expected to grow or decline to develop customized methods for addressing their talent needs.
While more than half of all employees will require significant re- and upskilling, most employers
plan to focus their efforts on a few high-value roles rather than those at risk of displacement, due
to cost concerns. For a single company large-scale talent development, reskilling and upskilling
may not be affordable – but for a consortium of companies from an industry, costs can be low
enough to make collaboration rather than competition for talent worthwhile, like the
collaborative approach used in Italy.

4.2 Businesses must define their companies’ augmentation strategy: While skills
such as technology design and programming will continue to grow in demand, so will ‘human’
skills such as creativity, originality and initiative, critical thinking, persuasion and negotiation,
attention to detail, resilience, flexibility, complex problem-solving, emotional intelligence,
leadership, social influence, and service orientation. This is not surprising – for many companies,
after an initial wave of labor-displacing, cost-cutting technologies, their future growth depends
on creating new and differentiated products and services that tap into human skills. But for the
concept of augmentation to go beyond a euphemism for simple automation, the human capital of
companies can no longer be a liability but an asset. Together with other executives, chief human
resources officers must be the new leaders at the frontlines of driving growth by creating a
human-machine augmentation strategy for their organizations.

4.3. Governments must activate modern labor market policies: Global average skills
stability—the proportion of core skills required to perform a job that will remain the same—is
expected to be about 58%, meaning an average shift of 42% in required workforce skills over the
2018–2022 period. For someone who is likely to stay employed in their current role in the white
collar workforce, this means on average 101 days of reskilling. But for those who are likely to be
fully displaced, the average time for reskilling towards a better paid role may be 2 years or
longer. For 70% of displaced workers, their new role is going to come from outside their current
industry. These are daunting challenges and it is critical that governments play a proactive role in
addressing them. Such policies for the modern labor market range from improving job centers, to
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 10

developing income safety nets, to considering individual training accounts, to building an

ecosystem for public and privately provided retaining, to new policies for online work.

4.4 Policymakers and investors need to consider a new approach to job creation in
the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR): Complementing the growth expected from
technological change, the education, green energy, care, leisure and health sectors are expected
to expand due to demand in developing and developed countries alike. Across all industries,
among the roles that are expected to grow significantly by 2022 are those leveraging technology.
These include data analysts and scientists, software and applications developers, ecommerce and
social media specialists, AI and machine learning specialists, big data specialists, information
security analysts and robotics engineers. But there is also much potential in roles that leverage
distinctively “human” traits, such as customer service, sales and marketing, training and
development, people and culture, innovation management and organizational development. This
is a unique window of opportunity. Governments will need to create the right incentives through
an investment and entrepreneurship framework that systematically channels the right kind of job
creation– a new approach to “industrial policy” in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

4. 5. All stakeholders need a common language for defining and assessing skills: For
the last century, diplomas and degrees – and the institutions that issue them – have served as
proxies for the applicable skills that people actually hold, especially in the white-collar
workforce. In a labour market where there was relative stability, this system, while not ideal,
largely worked. Today, however, education systems are often missing the practical skills needed
in the workplace. Even when this is not the case, workforce needs change too fast for one degree
to last across a decades-long career. Instead, we need to develop a common pooled taxonomy
around talent to understand what constitutes a skill, a competency, an ability or a trait – and how
to assess it. Such a taxonomy can serve as a basis for an agile, transferable approach to degrees,
diplomas, certifications, micro-credentials, recruiting and staffing. Creating this information
symmetry can lead to a more efficient, transparent, and dynamic labour and education market –
and introduce new, more meritocratic paths to social mobility in society.

None of the proposals above are easy to implement. Each requires complex coordination across
multiple stakeholders. Most need new forms of currently private data to become public.Some are
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 11

bound to fail. But if successful, they have the power to change the trajectory of millions of lives
for the better and power new growth in our economies.

5. Conclusion: Technology has gone to a very high level in the recent years.
Technology has concentrated on making work easier and reduces the need for employing many
people. This has led to the decrease in the importance of human labor. People have been losing
jobs playing by the machines. The machines have the advantage that they are faster and more
effective. They enable an organization to meet its deadlines and thus avoid a situation where the
organization is not able to carry its duties in time. On the other hand, machines lead to loss of
jobs for people and thus making them not have an income.
MACHINES VS HUMAN LABOR 12

References

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February, 2017). World economic forum. Retrieved from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/02/after-replacing-90-of-employees-with-robots-
this-companys-productivity-soared
3. Machines Will Do More Tasks Than Humans by 2025 but Robot Revolution Will Still
Create 58 Million Net New Jobs in Next Five Years. (17 September, 2018). World
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net-new-jobs-in-next-five-years/
4. Here are 5 ways for workers to win in the robot age. (17 September, 2018). World
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win-as-a-worker-in-the-robot-age/
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