Good Intentions

Autonomous Haulage System trucks at the West Angelas mine, Western Australia.

Rio Tinto is automating their iron ore mines in Australia. It's saving the company some money which is always good from a business perspective, but on the other hand it is putting a lot of people out of work, which is really bad because, well, unemployment. Well, unemployment is big problem in the USA, I don't know how it is in Australia, although it doesn't sound good.

More than 38,000 mining jobs were lost in Australia between May 2012 and December 2014 due to cutbacks and the introduction of more efficient work practices and new technologies. . . .
“You will tend to lose the boring, repetitive jobs performed in the 50 degrees [centigrade] heat in the Pilbara but you can also create new innovative roles in analysing data and developing technology,” [Dr Boehl] said. - Financial Times

50 degrees C is 122 degrees American, which is pretty dang hot. Not as hot as some of the places in the Mideast and Africa where temperatures can get up to 140, but still pretty dang hot.

When I was a kid I was willing to work but I wanted a job that paid money. I think a lot of young people are like that. If I had managed to luck into a job that paid real money I might have stuck with it and even now I might be doing the same thing over and over again in some union shop somewhere. But I didn't. So I'd work a job for six months or a year until 1) I had mastered the job, and 2) I was sick to death of making $2 an hour, and then I would go look for something else. I did that for eight years until I finally wised up and realized my old man was right and I should go back to school and get a degree, which happened to be in Computer Science. And here I am unemployed. Or retired. Hard to tell.

Via the other Chuck.