one day last week, whilst the international stock markets began to tumble in turmoil, it seemed nobody was confident about anything, so they were selling up and consolidating their funds.
On the same day, I read an article about Chinese shipyards that had won orders for some bulk carriers, which meant that there are something like 47 very large ore carriers now on order. It seems they are destined to be engaged in transporting ore to China. The conclusion must be that there are many people around the world who have great faith in the future, at least in the long term.
Here at Solar Solve we had a good January and managed to achieve target sales, with February off to an even better start. For us, everything is very positive. It’s very hard work, with lots of pressures to deal with but the excitement of winning orders and the challenges of both winning and delivering them, never goes away and we do love what we do.
One of the sad things about work today and even more so in the future, is automation. It has lots of benefits but its most significant downside in my opinion, is the unemployment that it creates and all of the associated ramifications that transpire.
My office window looks out over 7 of the 10 factories on the East Simonside Industrial Park, where Solar Solve Headquarters are located. All of the units and there are some very big ones, are in use and trading, yet there are few people to be seen and little in the way of traffic. Vastly different from the start of the 1960’s when I worked on Tyneside at Donkins Steering Gear, Clarke Chapman and Middle Docks, where thousands of men were employed and who, at 5 o’clock sharp, turned out in droves, shoulder to shoulder racing to get buses home. The sights and experience of being swept up in it all was truly amazing but not for me as a place to work forever.
Who knows how the unemployed people of the future are going to be kept fed and sane? What will they be expected to do? Surely the significant benefits of being replaced by robots have to be set against the effects that unemployment and idleness have on people. The positive thinkers will have ideas of how the unemployed need not necessarily be left to idle their time but instead to do something constructive with it – but what?
One assumes that there must be a solution that will work for the benefit of everyone, but Who Knows?
I certainly don’t.
