Dear Editor:
Why do so many of our city and county representatives still continue to okay warehouse development in our communities? The vast majority of residents, whom they are supposed to be representing, do not want them!
Most of those warehouse jobs are only part-time, low-wage, with no union protections or benefits. And report after report points out that the majority of the jobs created by those warehouses will soon be replaced by robots!
For example, a front page article in the Business section of the Los Angeles Times, on Jan. 24 predicts that if you live in San Bernardino County, and have a job in a warehouse, it is extremely likely that robots will very soon take over your job! The Brookings Institute’s sponsored 10-page referenced report predicts that about a quarter of all current U.S. jobs will soon be automated, putting millions out of work across the United States!
A 2017 study by the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis at the University of Redlands found that the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario-metro area was the third most likely in the U.S. to suffer from automation (62.6 percent).”
The higher education a person has, the less likely s/he is to lose their job to automation, according to the report. Therefore, most students should be encouraged to obtain the highest college or university degree possible, instead of settling for a warehouse job!
Some of the best paying jobs that should not be replaced by automation include scientists, engineers, managers, teachers, doctors, nurses, therapists, technicians, mathematicians, writers, artists, musicians, and designers. Students should be encouraged to go into those fields.
Again, I ask, with so many of these economic reports deluging the news, why do our local city and county representatives continue to okay warehouse development, against the wishes of almost all citizens, and advice from nationally respected economists?
Darlene Willis Scalf
Fontana
https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-warehouse-jobs-are-hurt-by-automation/article_4ffde078-257b-11e9-9cb2-2bf2fb409ec2.html