A tantalising prospect (from the Economist)

PaulF81

MacMickster wrote: »

The problem that we have is that we need jobs for unskilled workers in the UK, or else the divisions between the have's and have-not's will get wider.

Research can generate a huge amount of wealth for the UK, but is likely to remain concentrated in the hands of relatively few people. Whilst there would be some trickle down of that wealth, we can't neglect to look to create employment for the many rather than just the lucky few.

The have nots need to work harder at school.

Thrugelmir

PaulF81 wrote: »

The have nots need to work harder at school.

Culture and values is a reflection of wider society.

Something that the UK can be proud of. Is in our genes.

zagubov

MacMickster wrote: »

The problem that we have is that we need jobs for unskilled workers in the UK, or else the divisions between the have's and have-not's will get wider.

Research can generate a huge amount of wealth for the UK, but is likely to remain concentrated in the hands of relatively few people. Whilst there would be some trickle down of that wealth, we can't neglect to look to create employment for the many rather than just the lucky few.

We're obsessed that the private sector's the answer but very often it's resulted in head office activities moving overseas where decisionmakers need not hold us in high regard. Have a giggle at this article but have a think about it as well.

John_Pierpoint

Here is someone with practical experience of the interface between academia and industry.
After some warm up gags about the problems of making jobs for the output from academia, the practical experience is 2+ minutes into the programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qknqg

The other problem the UK industry has compared with Germany is that famous German companies (eg BMW) are still run by engineers - In the UK, such companies are run down by accountants dreaming of early retirement to a hobby farm, wishing they had gone into property development as a swifter option..

zagubov

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Here is someone with practical experience of the interface between academia and industry.
After some warm up gags about the problems of making jobs for the output from academia, the practical experience is 2+ minutes into the programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qknqg

The other problem the UK industry has compared with Germany is that famous German companies (eg BMW) are still run by engineers - In the UK, such companies are run down by accountants dreaming of early retirement to a hobby farm, wishing they had gone into property development as a swifter option..

That's why I try to point people whose children are going to uni to look at Simon11's useful post last summer.

N1AK

MacMickster wrote: »

The problem that we have is that we need jobs for unskilled workers in the UK, or else the divisions between the have's and have-not's will get wider.

we can't neglect to look to create employment for the many rather than just the lucky few.

People who study through school, college, university and then work in research for years in a highly technical field aren't lucky they've earned their success.

We need fewer unskilled workers or the gap between haves and have-nots will increase. You can't justify a 1st world wage doing work that anyone in the world could do with a days training. We need to accept that and plan accordingly.

Domfrizby

vivatifosi wrote: »

Interesting article from this week's Economist:

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21571847-exotic-useful-metals-such-tantalum-and-titanium-are-about-become-cheap

It looks like a firm has worked out how to use a different process to manufacture exotic minerals at a much lower price. Although this is early days, it's an exciting development. If they achieve their aim of producing low cost titanium, it could change engineering and manufacturing processes dramatically. The technology has come out of university research, so again, a good advert for science and technology research in this country.

Coming hot on the heels of the news re graphene and also new possibilities with 3D printing, how amazing would it be if at some point we experienced a manufacturing renaissance here?

At the moment it costs $10,000+ to make 0.1oz of graphene. And it only works when combined with silver, but its only as good as using pure silver which is $29oz.

Conrad

When I blather on about the comming third industrial revolution this is the sort of thing I have in mind.


I often argue it's very short sighted to argue we will run out of resources because it's completly obvious we will find ways around it.

John_Pierpoint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe
So far Thomas has been rubbished by the "everlasting growth brigade", and I agree he totally failed to see the effects of technology, powered by fossil fuels.

I can double the food supply by simply insisting everyone becomes a vegetarian and we all eat healthy lentils. However we are coming up against the limits of falling real prices. So the more of us there are, the poorer we get.

Here in Europe we have already survived a 1,000 year recession, after the system of Roman tax collection fell apart in a state of deficit financing (the underlying problems are debatable).

Just sit on the edge of the amphitheatre at Ephesus in Turkey and ask yourself, what went wrong.