As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 297 Unemployment Problem
Most individuals experience a long delay in perceiving the dramatic changes of the times.

The industry has been arguing about autonomous driving technology for many years, but most drivers don't pay attention to cutting-edge autonomous driving technology.

Most of them only care about their own income, their children's education and how to relieve physical fatigue and mental numbness.

On Toutiao or TikTok platforms, you may see sensational remarks made by science bloggers, saying that in the future drivers will be replaced by artificial intelligence.

Truck drivers just see it and forget it, and don’t really think that autonomous driving technology can replace humans.

However, when technological progress actually affects their own interests, they will try to fight back until they find that they cannot go against the trend.

In the past, when online ride-hailing services became popular and affected the interests of taxi drivers, taxi drivers often fought with the online ride-hailing group.

This only affects part of their interests.

Not to mention truck drivers being directly replaced by artificial intelligence.

It is true that truck drivers have hard work, but the pay is also very good.

In America, whether it is Walmart or Amazon, both online and offline "supermarkets" offer truck drivers very high salaries.

Before autonomous trucks became popular, Walmart paid truck drivers more than 800,000 RMB.

These truck drivers who have lost their jobs due to technological advances basically make a fuss every now and then.

In order to make a living, many truck drivers even run to the US-Mexico border to drive illegal taxis and specialize in doing business with illegal immigrants.

“The mass unemployment of truck drivers is just an insignificant sideshow in the great changes brought about by technological progress.

There will be more and more similar incidents in the future.

When autonomous driving technology enters civilian use, the number of unemployed people will be even more staggering.

In my impression, the number of ride-hailing drivers in America, just on the Uber platform, is more than ten times the number of truck drivers.

Not to mention that Uber is a global company and the number of online ride-hailing drivers in China is even larger.

The unemployment of these people will bring about more serious social problems.

This is a problem that every entrepreneur and government needs to face and is bound to occur in the future.

How to create new job opportunities to give people who have lost their jobs due to technological advances a job. "

Musk continued: “I just mentioned the groups of people who are directly affected by technological advances.

There are also many people who are indirectly affected by technological progress.

For example, in the short term, it is unlikely that robots will be able to deliver food and replace human delivery people.

But they will also be affected by autonomous driving technology.

After losing their jobs, many drivers choose to transform themselves into food deliverymen, which will lead to a decline in wages and benefits in this industry.

Things never exist in isolation; there are extensive and profound connections between them.”

The host took over the conversation, "Thank you very much for Mr. Musk's wonderful speech. What do you think of Mr. Zheng?"

After a moment’s thought, Zheng Li said, “I agree with Musk’s point of view.

The industrial Internetization of manufacturing will inevitably lead to the unemployment of a large number of people employed in the manufacturing industry.

Take our cooperation with Baosteel as an example. Baosteel has about 40,000 employees, and the smart steel factory built by Baosteel, Huawei and us has been promoted on a large scale.

Only 5,000 people are needed to maintain twice the current production capacity.

Another 35,000 people will face unemployment and re-employment.

For China and even the world, this is obviously not just a problem of 35,000 people, it will spread to the entire manufacturing industry.

This number should be multiplied by at least 10,000.”

Take Baosteel as an example. According to Baosteel’s 2013 annual financial report, their staff numbered 130962, and this number became 2021 in the 45405 annual financial report.

You should know that this was when Baosteel merged with Wuhan Iron and Steel in 2016.

The reason why Baosteel's staff has been so dramatically reduced in the past decade or so is mainly due to the company's refined management.

In the next ten years or so, further streamlining of staff will be mainly driven by scientific and technological forces.

China is too big. In the economic upswing cycle, the unemployment of a small number of people at Baosteel was easily absorbed.

The host asked: “So how do we deal with this problem?
The two entrepreneurs have such consistent views on this issue.

We can't help but worry about a possible wave of unemployment in the future.

Especially for a populous country like China, the manufacturing industry employs so many people.

In the face of mass unemployment caused by technological advances in the future, what can we do to better avoid this problem? "

Musk said bluntly: “This problem cannot be avoided.

The main thing is to guide the manufacturing population to the service industry.

The gap between rich and poor around the world will become more extreme.

The phenomenon of the strong getting stronger in the manufacturing sector will become more and more serious, and a large number of small and medium-sized manufacturing industries will not be able to survive.

Tesla faces similar problems.

Whether it is Tesla's super factory in Shenhai or Tesla's factories in other parts of the world, the future will be a state of continuous reduction in manpower.

Out of considerations of corporate responsibility, we will give those employees who have lost their jobs the opportunity to transfer internally, but as you know, there may not be many such opportunities.

Many of these employees may still face the risk of losing their jobs.

For China, what needs to be considered is to vigorously support the development of the service industry and to do a good job in agricultural precision production.”

Seeing that Musk was unwilling to say more, the host threw the topic to Zheng Li: "Mr. Zheng, what do you think about this issue?"

Zheng Li said bluntly: "We need to improve the social welfare security system to provide a safety net for individuals.

In the future, supplies will become more and more abundant.

On the basis of abundant materials, we will vigorously develop science and technology, upgrade the mid- and high-end industrial chains while not giving up the low-end industrial chains.

For example, China has a population of 1.4 billion, but only about 100 million people need to work to support the living needs of 1.3 billion people.

In fact, with the development of technology, there is no need for so many people to work.

Work should be the job of a few people.”

The peak dialogue that day was quite peaceful except for a little bit of tension at the beginning.

Perhaps Musk realized that the questions he raised were difficult for Zheng to answer, so he no longer tried to gain the upper hand verbally.

To use today's mainstream words, the two are the "top tier" among global entrepreneurs.

The number of people watching the live broadcast worldwide exceeded 10 million that day, and the topic sparked extensive and in-depth discussions on major social media platforms in China.

"I feel that both Zheng Li and Musk are extremely optimistic about the industrial Internet track."

Since the theme of this Wuzhen Summit is Industrial Internet, industry leaders are optimistic about the field of Industrial Internet.

Major securities firms and funds worked overtime over the weekend, planning to launch an industrial Internet ETF within the next two weeks. The so-called financial bigwigs on TikTok have already helped the leeks to select listed companies related to the industrial Internet.

When their fans saw that these stocks had appreciated significantly in the past two years and were a good choice, they listened to the big V and went in to stand guard for several years.

In the A-share market, a good company does not necessarily mean a high valuation, and its stock price will definitely rise.

"Damn, Musk is indeed an expert on China. He knows a lot about China better than I do. I didn't even know there were four major city clusters in China."

"Why do I feel like Musk knows China better than Zheng Li?"

"Zheng Li's answer is not down-to-earth at all, and it shows that he has been in a senior position for too long.

With China's approach, improving welfare benefits is like constipation. How can it be possible that only 100 million people need to work?"

"Zheng Li's idea is good, but it has no chance of being implemented in the short term."

"The employment of truck drivers has indeed been greatly affected in recent years. When I take online ride-hailing cars on the road, I like to chat with the drivers. From what I have chatted with, I can see that many truck drivers have switched to online ride-hailing drivers recently.

If autonomous driving is really realized in urban travel in the future, what will they do? "

"My father used to be a truck driver. Fortunately, he was able to transfer to another position internally as a truck driver at JD.com. Now he has transferred to become a delivery boy at JD.com.

Many of the truck driver friends he knows are living far worse than him, some working as security guards, delivery men, and domestic workers.

It was the first time I knew that America was facing a similar situation, with truck drivers holding large-scale protests from time to time.

I haven’t seen any related reports in domestic news media.”

In fact, China also has a similar situation, but the information cannot be spread on the Internet.

“I felt a chill in my bones when I heard about the future mentioned by the two top bosses.

Musk is obviously extremely rational and completely self-interest-oriented, which has nothing in common with the traditional Chinese concepts of self-cultivation, family management, governance of the country, and peace in the world.

Zheng Li showed that he had never lived at the bottom of society, had no understanding of specific matters, and was very idealistic.

But it is completely understandable that he received 50 million in venture capital before the end of his freshman year, and then the company he founded had a market value of over one trillion in just over five years, and the unit was US dollars.

It's normal to be out of touch with reality. People are always flying in the sky.

From the perspective of technological development, the future will be dominated by oligopolies.

From the speeches of these two top entrepreneurs, we can see that in this future, it is impossible for top entrepreneurs to empathize with ordinary people. "

There has always been a saying: there are individuals who betray their class, but there are no groups that betray their class.

"Aren't Zheng Li and Musk both mages? I was looking forward to this conversation between the two. I thought there would be a magic duel.

Previously, Tesla employees stole commercial secrets from Kechuang Bio's R&D center in Singapore. Doesn't Zheng Li want to give Musk a version of Avada Kedavra?
Musk's Neuralink has always been the runner-up in the field of brain-computer connection. I feel that I will never see the hope of surpassing Ke Chuang Bio in my lifetime. Doesn't Musk want to cast a soul-stealing spell on Zheng Li?
It's so boring for mages to just talk nonsense without dueling."

In fact, it's not just him who is looking forward to it. Audiences all over the world are expecting the two people with a grudge against each other to stage a magic duel.

This is also a rare occasion for two prominent mages to meet in public.

In fact, a similar suggestion has been made by the staff of the Wuzhen Summit. How about mentioning it? You two can exchange your understanding and experience of magic on the spot.

It was also an indirect question as to whether the two wanted to stage a magic fight.

The organizers of the summit were furious at the time: "Are you crazy or am I crazy?

How shameless are you to let two big men with a net worth of more than 200 billion yuan perform for you in public?

If something unexpected happens, who will be responsible?
Who here is capable of taking responsibility?

It's really not necessary for a little traffic.

This is the Global Internet Conference, not a magic conference!

Not to mention traffic, even if everyone in the world had to pay six yuan to watch this event, these two big guys would not agree to perform for you.

There are 450 billion people in the world, and if each person has yuan, that's only billion RMB, which is barely a fraction of the two bosses' net worth.

Anyone who brings up this unreliable and gimmicky proposal again, get out!"

Musk's net worth exceeds one trillion RMB, and Zheng Li's net worth is much more than Musk's.

450 billion RMB is indeed just a fraction.

This shows how exaggerated the gap between the rich and the poor is.

Afterwards, no staff member of the Wuzhen Summit organizers dared to make a similar proposal.

"Ma Huateng is hosting a dinner for everyone tonight. Would you like to join me?

You can eat anywhere anyway, why not go out and have something good instead of staying in the hotel? "

After finishing, Li Miaomiao asked before returning to the bedroom.

Zheng Li nodded and said, "Okay."

Just before Zheng Li was about to return to his room, Li Miaomiao asked, "Zheng Li, do you think the future will be better?"

“If the Industrial Internet really leads to large-scale unemployment in the manufacturing industry in the future.

Is this really a better future?"

Zheng Li knew that although Li Miaomiao had been in a senior executive position at Kechuang Bio for many years, her concepts had not changed in many cases.

In other words, Li Miaomiao is more able to look at problems from the perspective of ordinary people.

Zheng Li explained: "Yes."

“Technological progress will definitely make society better.

I just had a conversation with Musk, and neither of us gave a complete account of this matter.

The popularization of the Industrial Internet will lead to the loss of a large number of manufacturing jobs, but it will also create many new jobs.”

Li Miaomiao asked in return: "Just like the new jobs created after the Internet became popular?"

Zheng Li nodded and said, "For example, Taobao sellers, couriers, food deliverymen, online car-hailing drivers, social media traffic stars, etc."

Li Miaomiao has been involved in the actual operation and management of the company for many years, and later he also supplemented his theoretical knowledge through an on-the-job master's degree.

She quickly realized the problem with Zheng Li’s point of view: “The positions you proposed are all centered around serving individuals.

In other words, the last information revolution mainly created the circulation of information among individuals.

Even at the business management level, it is mostly limited to superficial areas such as information storage and mechanized calculations.

In my opinion, the future industrial Internet will accelerate the flow of data in traditional manufacturing.

I think the job creation is limited.”

Zheng Li nodded and said, “No one knows what the future will be like.

But I think your guess is right.

So I also proposed in the afternoon conversation that the social welfare system needs to be improved to protect the basic living of the unemployed people. "

(End of this chapter)