Are we being complacent about disappearing white collar jobs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Trump admin had specifically said they want us to work in factories.

All those government jobs were good jobs that they cut- lawyers, engineers, scientists.

No one who worked as a lawyer, engineer, or scientist is going to go work in a factory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in my early 30s and I am so scared. Not sure what I will do if I literally can't get a job for most of my career.

I'm about to turn 40, DOGE is killing my field, and I feel the same. I don't even know what to advise my kids to study.

Psychotherapy
Nursing
Creative Arts

A few other jobs wont be killed by AI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Trump admin had specifically said they want us to work in factories.

All those government jobs were good jobs that they cut- lawyers, engineers, scientists.

No one who worked as a lawyer, engineer, or scientist is going to go work in a factory.

They have told us that they’re turning our work over to states to do. What? States don’t even have the personnel on staff or the money to want to do these things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not just white collar jobs. Anyone earning a salary or wages is not viewed as human and can be discarded for any perceived inconvenience to a company. Tech is already talking about AI replacing 80% of employed people.

Either we all don't work and enjoy the fruits of AI, or we all get fired and don't enjoy the fruits of AI, so we have to... do work for each other and enjoy the fruits of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not just white collar jobs. Anyone earning a salary or wages is not viewed as human and can be discarded for any perceived inconvenience to a company. Tech is already talking about AI replacing 80% of employed people.

They may fire 80% of employed people, but AI won't actually replace the things those people do. Every service and interaction will just get crappier due to bad AI chatbots, bad AI generated information, and endless loops where you can never talk to a person to sort it out. The efficiency will be theirs (in not paying salaries) not ours (in getting products and services anybody wants).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will have to have UBI. If there is AI and robots, we can’t expect every human to work for money anymore.

Agreed. But I feel like large swarms of people not working (even if being given UBI, health insurance, etc.) has other implications. What will people DO all day? Lots of people, myself included, sort of need the structure of a job.

I really want there to be a national service program, like the CCC but expanded to include other types of community service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will have to have UBI. If there is AI and robots, we can’t expect every human to work for money anymore.

Agreed. But I feel like large swarms of people not working (even if being given UBI, health insurance, etc.) has other implications. What will people DO all day? Lots of people, myself included, sort of need the structure of a job.

I really want there to be a national service program, like the CCC but expanded to include other types of community service.

Unfortunately, Americorps just got canceled.

Maybe it's because I'm a mom, but I can think of TONS of stuff to do to fill my time. Get involved in local government. Volunteer in schools or other organizations. Clear trails. Make art. Write. Garden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Policy wonks should be unemployed

Using the word “wonk” should be a capital offense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I think as a country we are complacent, and educated (white?) people as a group are complacent about the next generation. We have forgotten the space race and national push to educate kids so they would have good options. My parents were blue collar and busted their butts so I could go to college and live better than they did - not so their grandkids could work as Uber drivers and gig-economy coders with no benefits.

I've also noticed a fantasy that displaced white collar workers will somehow fill all the underpaid pink collar jobs - teachers, childcare, home health aides, etc - as if that wouldn't represent a massive cut nationally to incomes and spending power and tax base. We think we can chronically underpay a bunch of necessary workers until there's a shortage, and then try to fill those jobs not by paying more but by destroying the higher paying fields whose workers primarily consume and pay for those services.

Just like there is a fantasy that everyone’s kids can becomes plumbers and HVAC techs. There won’t be anyone paying to build or repair homes to employ the trades, and it’s not like you can build an export business on fixing toilets.

[Anonymous]

I think we need more white collar job creation and it can’t always be from the government. We can’t all be plumbers.

While someone’s remark of “let them do manufacturing” was awful sounding, there are white collar jobs that come from that and probably not too many blue collar jobs because of the level of automation needed to make it cost efficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are we being complacent about disappearing white collar jobs? When I look at job reports a lot of jobs seem to be in service related sectors. And people have been complaining about the tough job market for awhile now. Yet there are openings if you want to be a bus driver, home health aide, etc....

Yes. There is no other conclusion when you see the damage done by h1b and opt and f1 and l1 and h4ead etc. the goal of these programs is to replace US citizens with cheaper foreign labor

When did that become acceptable????

[Anonymous]

I would have become a nurse - maybe a nurse anesthetist.

I’m a 53-year old lawyer and see that AI is going to gut our profession. I tell my kids to do something AI-resistant. If you are going to be a lawyer, be a prosecutor because AI can’t argue a case in court.

[Anonymous]

I think they want women to stop working entirely and go back to the 50s when they were only wives or mothers. Men will work factory jobs and a few men will lord over them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we need more white collar job creation and it can’t always be from the government. We can’t all be plumbers.

While someone’s remark of “let them do manufacturing” was awful sounding, there are white collar jobs that come from that and probably not too many blue collar jobs because of the level of automation needed to make it cost efficient.

I believe the government WAS creating white collar jobs. A lot of the research and scientific expertise that the feds were putting out was gobbled up by companies who used that data for profits. Think weather data, geological data, agricultural data, animal data, ocean research, mapping, seismic, etc. I saw daily how the private sector used what we put out. These were white collar jobs we were helping to create. But I guess that has no "value" to America anymore and we all deserve to be fired for being lazy scientists and engineers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Trump admin had specifically said they want us to work in factories.

All those government jobs were good jobs that they cut- lawyers, engineers, scientists.

No one who worked as a lawyer, engineer, or scientist is going to go work in a factory.

Agree! The scientists that were RifD from my Agency have been able to find a better paying job within weeks.