2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders, Automation, and the Fate of the US [View all]paulthompson
(2,398 posts)I don't know those specific statistics in depth, but I've read several recent books on automation, and they all say similar things. Unfortunately, as a percentage of population, creative jobs just aren't that many. There's a stat elsewhere in my essay that says only 4% of all US jobs use even an average level of creativity. That's not going to change dramatically.
Furthermore, not a lot of people know this, but computers are increasingly able to even do creative things, such as writing music, painting, writing newspaper articles, and so on. There are even computer programs that have sorted through vast amounts of scientific data, come up with their own hypotheses, conducted their own studies, and written their own papers with the results! (Note that no computer has consciousness, but an imitation of human thinking can often come very close to looking like the real thing.)
3D printing is one area where there could be a boomlet of new jobs. But that often will involve taking away a job somewhere else. For instance, imagine a locally made spare part using 3D printing, but that had been made in some factory in another state.
Energy costs are likely to be dramatically reduced. I don't think that'll lead to many new jobs though. What it could help with is a drastically reduced cost of living, so one won't need to work so much to maintain the same living standard.
I think that if anyone is trying to figure out how to survive the coming economic crunch due to automation, a good way to go is to be as self-sufficent as possible. Go solar, plant a garden, and the like.