Dear Editor,

Robots are great, aren’t they? They clean your floors, make your coffee and take your jobs … wait, what? Yes, you heard me right, they take our jobs. However, you shouldn’t blame them for taking our jobs because aren’t they just shifting the jobs?

Think about it. Sure, robots can do many simple tasks better than humans, but they can’t fix themselves or do many complicated tasks. It’s up to humans to fix them, and this is where the shifting of jobs comes into play.

As robots take over more of the jobs that involve labor tasks, more jobs are opened up involving the improvement and maintenance of said robots. Take a look at Amazon which has warehouse robots. Instead of having people manually go around and search for products, Amazon has an advanced logistics system using mostly robots.

I say mostly because there is still a need for humans to sort out the needed products and then ship them on their merry way. But still, with all of these robots who will fix them when they break down? Of course people will fix them, unless we get self-repairing robots.

This is just the beginning as well. If all the warehouses around Oshkosh switched to using robots, the people who work those jobs probably wouldn’t all be fired, and in the place of those that do lose their jobs there will be IT technicians. Overall, the issue of robots in the workplace isn’t something to be feared. It’s just something that takes time for the public to adapt to.

Travis Jelinek