What happens if robots take the jobs? The impact of emerging technologies on employment and public policy

Washington, D.C. – Darrell M.West, of the Brookings Institution writes,“Today only 16 percent of students graduating high school are proficient in and interested in a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). This fact underlines the potential consequences this new frontier presents for the workforce and the provision of health benefits, pensions, and social insurance. As automation and robots displace or replace workers, how can society adjust so as not to disrupt the delivery of social benefits like health care and pensions?"

" In a new paper, "What happens if robots take the jobs? The impact of emerging technologies on employment and public policy," Darrell West tackles this question by offering creative solutions to dispensing social benefits while automation continues to rise. West proposes striking economic changes in order to restructure how our society delivers on the social contract, such as:

• Separating the dispersion of health care, disability, and pension benefits outside of employment, offering workers with limited skills social benefits on a universal basis.
• Mandating a basic income guarantee for a reasonable standard of living to combat persistent unemployment or underemployment posed by the automation economy.
• Revamping the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to allow the benefit to support households in the grips of high unemployment.
• Providing activity accounts for lifetime learning and job retraining to motivate the workforce to keep pace with innovation.”

​For the complete story and more information click here: http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2015/10/26-robots-emerging-technologies-public-policy-west?hs_u=tyler.seville@gmail.com&utm_campaign=Center+for+Technology+Innovation&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=23621299&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--ZNT2HWwwKBoNyESSzWy83yv6x6MnEsJkhUwyZAtBQTfX7W8_3Xa9levuuZYGHmSSSmyAMb9bGolKSQ6XiZmbc8JkUiQ&_hsmi=23621299