The changing face of the middle class

vivatifosi

I have often said that library staff would be made redundant if someone could manufacture a shelving robot that could comprehend the Dewey system and do a bit of shelf ordering. This thankfully is too expensive. So volunteers are used instead.

Another interesting point of the article is that many of those jobs that are falling behind - for example teaching - cannot easily be filled by robots. So there is another dynamic at play.

kabayiri

Generali wrote: »

We come back to the point I didn't want to raise on this thread then, the coming 'robot smog'.

A huge number of jobs are about to be robotted out of existence. Jobs like driving will simply disappear.

Driving a car would have been impossible to automate 10 years ago, now it's being tested on normal roads. In another decade, computing power is likely to have risen a further 32-64 fold according to Moore's Law making it a doddle for a bus to be driven by a robot.

Why would cheffing continue to exist if we continue down this road? Imagine a chef that would never forget that the lobster was about to go out of date and would spend all night cleaning the kitchen. How about a waiter that would always remember my order and wouldn't forget to bring me another glass of red?

This is coming in the next decade to a society near you.

This is why we will not need large numbers of people going forward.

The robot revolution will in some cases not be recognisable as robots.

There is a demonstration planned at the world cup of a paraplegic person kicking a football using a mechanical exo-skeleton. This was the stuff of science fiction mere decades ago.

We seem to think that a lot of the new technology jobs will still remain in UK , Europe, and US. I'm not sure why that should be the case.

thequant

Fully paid up member of the uber middles class here, 6 figure salary, top 1% earners etc.


However I have to admit it has not always been that way, I spent the first half of my 30's rotting away on benefits and only entered this group when I returned to the world of work 5 years ago.


One thing we need to recognise as a society is that the world is continually changing, in the 80's it was the working class that was being destroyed. Like my kin, I blamed thatcher, but have since come to realised it was inevitable with or without thatcher.


Now it is the turn of the middle class who are being wiped out, the reason for this are various. One of them is the working class who are snapping on their tails with their degrees which has now eroded the value of education.


The other is jobs are now more automated, a bank manager no longer needs to use his judgement, he just needs to press buttons on a keyboard to make it for him.


Another is that back end office jobs are now being exported abroad.


So what makes the uber-middle class different ? The difference is that the uber middle class are recognised as wealth creators.


one great thing is that this class is actually easy to enter, after rotting away on the dole with no hope for the future I was reading an article about a big area companies were investing in.


That there was a shortage of suitably qualified people in the country. I enquired and was offered a place on a funded MSc. The rest as they say is history, but my salary has escalated from £25k when I started an entry level job at 35! to over £100k in 5 years and is still growing.


The best thing, I would say about this new uber class is that as long as you create wealth no one cares about your background, whether male or female, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, state school or public school. The uber middle class is the most diverse group of people you will ever meet.


I have a friend who has a middle class civil service job and her friends are the most obnoxious bunch of public school !!!!! I have ever met. But it feels great knowing that I earn about 3 times the amount what they earn!

Linton

I agree with The Quant's general analysis, though whether he and other members of the uber-middle class are actually creating wealth must surely be open to argument. Doesnt a quant just help his masters more effectively move money from one pocket to another? ISTM the ubers could be characterised by their not creating wealth.

thequant

Linton wrote: »

I agree with The Quant's general analysis, though whether he and other members of the uber-middle class are actually creating wealth must surely be open to argument. Doesnt a quant just help his masters more effectively move money from one pocket to another? ISTM the ubers could be characterised by their not creating wealth.

Agree, I almost certainly do not create wealth, only that for my "masters". However as most of the money of that is moved from one pocket to another is from abroad, it is no drain on the UK and results in a net contribution to our tax coffers.


so in a local UK context we are all better off, but as a global society then we are not.

jamesmorgan

The concept of class only really existed whilst there were strong barriers between them. People were working/middle/upper class for life (typically from the day they were born). Thankfully this is now much less the case. Today we can talk about income percentiles, but individuals can move between these depending on life choices throughout their working life.

There are still some cultural aspects of the old class system that still remain and individuals are less likely to move between these cultural stereotypes (eg middle classes are more likely to read books, broadsheet newspapers and attend theatres). So if class does still have some meaning it is in these cultural areas, but it is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

grizzly1911

Generali wrote: »

It's all about income. Nothing more, nothing less.

Far too many people in the UK affect to be Working Class. I used to know the 18 y/o daughter of the MD of the (very large) company we worked for. She used to bang on endlessly about how she was working class. It's all balls.

A portfolio manager on £500k will be doing 8-6 every day, pretty much. Is he working class?

The manager you describe, earning £500k, should be in control of their own destiny unless they are stupid. They may attend for the allotted time whether they work, nose to the grindstone, for their entire time their is any ones guess.

Agree with your daughter scenario. If she really had been cast out and burnt all bridges,working on the "shop floor" of another business might let her off.

There is a difference between class and high or uber wealth. For some of the latter they will never bridge the divide.

Prudent

vivatifosi wrote: »

I have often said that library staff would be made redundant if someone could manufacture a shelving robot that could comprehend the Dewey system and do a bit of shelf ordering. This thankfully is too expensive. So volunteers are used instead.

Another interesting point of the article is that many of those jobs that are falling behind - for example teaching - cannot easily be filled by robots. So there is another dynamic at play.

I teach children with complex special needs. They can do very little for themselves. Technology has an important role such as alternative and augmentative communication, interactive floors etc, but the majority of the work with them will remain hands on due to their need for personal and medical care. Moreover it is a growth area as developments in medicine mean more and more of these children are living longer lives. Yet my salary has fallen quite a bit over the last few years with pay freezes and higher pension payments.

thequant

Prudent wrote: »

Moreover it is a growth area as developments in medicine mean more and more of these children are living longer lives. Yet my salary has fallen quite a bit over the last few years with pay freezes and higher pension payments.

This might sound harsh, but it does come down to the crux of how our society works. But what value do you or these children add ?

CLAPTON

Prudent wrote: »

I teach children with complex special needs. They can do very little for themselves. Technology has an important role such as alternative and augmentative communication, interactive floors etc, but the majority of the work with them will remain hands on due to their need for personal and medical care. Moreover it is a growth area as developments in medicine mean more and more of these children are living longer lives. Yet my salary has fallen quite a bit over the last few years with pay freezes and higher pension payments.

with the increase in longevity, the value of your pension has greatly increased so maybe your effective total income has gone up.