Trump's Treasury Secretary is Dead Wrong on Machines Taking Jobs

In a recent interview, Trump's Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said he wasn't worried about artificial intelligence taking American jobs.  In his opinion, we are anywhere from 50 to 100 years away from that happening.  Thus, the U.S. treasury shouldn't be affected by the drop in tax revenues that may occur from people's jobs being replaced.

But, he's dead wrong.

We are already seeing jobs replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).  And, have for years.  When you self-checkout at the grocery store, make no mistake, those devices replaced people. Wendy's recently announced that it will install order-taking kiosks at 1,000 stores around the country.   McDonald's is going to do the same with 14,000 stores.  A company called Miso has already perfected an AI robot called "Flippy" that can cook hamburgers, flip them, and then, place them on a bun.

Besides Google's self-driving cars that may replace taxi drivers, Mercedes is currently testing long-haul self-driving trucks that may be ready to hit the roads in 2025.  A company called Knightscope is already selling a fully autonomous robot security guard.  There is also a bricklaying robot called "SAM" that can automatically lay bricks at a cost 7 times cheaper than a human. The list of these human job replacement machines and devices is growing by the day.

The government needs to wake up to that fact before we have too many people in this country out of work, not paying taxes, and instead, needing money from the Treasury to survive.

References:

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says AI taking US jobs is '50-100 more years' away — but it's already beginning to happen: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-robots-are-coming-whether-mnuchin-says-so-or-not-2017-3

Robots Are Slashing U.S. Wages and Worsening Pay Inequality: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-28/robots-are-slashing-u-s-wages-and-worsening-pay-inequality

Thanks To 'Fight For $15' Minimum Wage, McDonald's Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks Nationwide: https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/11/29/thanks-to-fight-for-15-minimum-wage-mcdonalds-unveils-job-replacing-self-service-kiosks-nationwide/#723eceda4fbc

There’s Now a Robot That Can Flip Burgers Fortune Editors Mar 14, 2017: http://fortune.com/2017/03/14/miso-robotics-flippy-burger-flipping-robot/

Wendy’s Is Going to Install Self-Ordering Machines in 1,000 Stores: http://fortune.com/2017/02/27/wendys-self-ordering-kiosks/

The long-haul truck of the future: https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/innovation/the-long-haul-truck-of-the-future/

Knightscope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knightscope

Meet SAM, Brick Laying Robot That Does The Work Of 6 Humans: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-27/meet-sam-brick-laying-robot-does-work-6-humans

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