tailieunhanh - Technology and the Economy of the Future_4

Tham khảo tài liệu 'technology and the economy of the future_4', kinh tế - quản lý, kinh tế học phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | THE LIGHTS IN THE TUNNEL 126 workforce lost nearly two million textile jobs to improving automation technology between 1995 and It is easy to imagine factories of the future that are almost entirely automated and run by a few skilled technicians. As labor costs fall we can expect that energy costs will be rising. Nearly all analysts agree that world oil production will peak at some point in the coming years and decades. Beyond this point in the absence of replacement energy technologies the cost of fossil fuels is likely to rise inexorably. Given this we can reasonably expect that the primary incentives for locating the factories of the future will shift away from seeking low labor costs and toward minimizing energy costs. One of the most significant drivers of energy expenditure is of course transportation. Economists Jeff Rubin and Benjamin Tal have suggested that soaring transportation costs resulting from high energy prices alone may be sufficient to reverse globalization. They point out that once oil reaches a price of 150 barrel the additional transportation costs are essentially equivalent to the tariffs that existed in the In a world with automated factories and high energy costs there will be clear incentives toward distributed manufacturing. It will make sense to locate factories as close as possible to consumers and or to the natural resources used as inputs in the production process. A primary motivation in locating factories will be to minimize the transportation costs associated with moving both inputs and final products. It is also possible that advancing automation technology may ultimately transform the tradition Copyrighted Material Paperback Kindle available @ Amazon Danger 127 al economy of scale model so that much smaller and more flexible factories located in direct proximity to markets make sense. Aside from energy costs a second crucial consideration will be political stability. The forces unleashed by accelerating .