Marx: Bri­ti­scher Noten­bankchef warnt vor Rückkehr des Marxismus

Klar, auch wir kommen nicht am Geburtstag von Karl Marx vorbei. Ver­schiedene Artikel bieten sich zur Kom­men­tierung an. Beginnen wir mit einer Rede, die Marc Carney, immerhin Chef der bri­ti­schen Notenbank zu dem Thema gehalten hat. Auf­hänger sind die Folgen der digi­talen Revolution.
  • „Mark Carney said that the expected auto­mation of mil­lions of blue and white collar jobs, bringing with it weak wage growthfor those in work, maylead to the ideas behind Com­munism winning new fans.“
    Stelter: Man beachte nur die Dis­kussion in Deutschland, getrieben von lauten Gerechtigkeitsrufen.
  • Marx and Engels may again become relevant if tech­nology des­troys jobs, forces down pay and pushes up ine­qualityas a new elite of highly skilled workers and the owners of high-tech machines reap the rewards of the new era, Mr Carney said.“
    – Stelter: was sicherlich zu erwarten ist nach Jahren rück­läu­figer Lohnquoten.
  • „Pro­duc­tivity soared 150 years ago as the indus­trial revo­lution took hold and new tech­nology acce­le­rated manu­fac­turing, yet average wages sta­gnated for decades as machines meant the jobs created were low-skilled.Recent years of weak wage growth since the financial crisis could indicate this 19th century expe­rience is being repeated now (…).“
    – Stelter: und viel­leicht sogar noch schlimmer, wenn wir uns zugleich den Zuwachs der unge­bil­deten Arbeits­kräfte gerade bei uns anschauen.
  • „Workers cannot gene­rally move seam­lesslyfrom one type of work to another in which they can be as pro­ductive, so the benefits, from a worker’s per­spective, from the first indus­trial revo­lution, which began in latter half of the 18th century, were not felt fully in pro­duc­tivity and wages until the latter half of the 19th century (…) this sta­gnation in pay is known as the Engels’ Pause.“
    – Stelter: Es gibt also einen Time-lag. Und dieser kann sozial gefährlich werden.
  • „If you sub­stitute plat­forms for textile mills, machine learning for steam engines, Twitter for the tele­graph, you have exactly the same dynamics as existed 150 years ago – when Karl Marx was scribbling the Com­munist Manifesto.“
    – Stelter: und damit den Nähr­boden für Kon­flikte, die tie­fer­ge­hender sein können, als damals.
  • „(…) there are also signs of  hol­lowing out in the job market as mid-level workers also find com­puters incre­asingly able to do spe­cific tasks. Major law firms, for ins­tance, are investing in arti­ficial intel­li­genceto scan docu­ments to find and analyse key facts among written material – some­thing which is tra­di­tio­nally done by legions of junior lawyers and cle­rical staff. Banks are using large volumes of data on cus­tomer queries and com­plaints and feeding it into machines. These can learn the common ques­tions that clients ask, allowing the com­puters to answer ques­tions directly – removing the need to employ cus­tomer service staff. Ser­vices jobs such as driving taxis or lorries could also dis­appear, as self-driving tech­nology improves.“
    – Stelter: Wir haben den Dop­pel­schlag. Die Unqua­li­fi­zierten finden schlechter Jobs, weil Taxis selber fahren und Burger von Auto­maten gemacht werden. Die Mit­tel­schicht, die die Unqua­li­fi­zierten mit durch­füttern soll, ver­liert auch zunehmend den Job. Das geht nicht gut.
  • „The trends con­trast with pre­vious wavesof tech­no­lo­gical change which have given more manual tasks to machines, freeing up workers to do more pro­ductive rolesinvolving more brain than brawn (…)But the new wave of tech­nology uses machine learning and arti­ficial intel­li­gence com­bined with enormous volumes of data which could render cognitive workers red­undant.“
    Stelter:: Es geht viel ver­loren und es kommt wenig wieder zurück.
  • Meint auch der Noten­banker: „Mr Carney said the pace of the digital revo­lution could also mean the new jobs created might not keep pace with the older jobs des­troyed, leaving large numbers of workers stuck with skills that do not match the jobs available and so with falling pay.“
    – Stelter: Wohl dem, der wie Japan jede Zuwan­derung unterbindet!
  • „While a large pool of workers could see their situation worsen, the small number with skills to match the new jobs can expect large pay rises. On top of that, more profits will go to those who own the machines rather than to workers, incre­asing ine­quality further.“
    – Stelter: Das wird ein Spaß. Gut, dass unsere Regierung zur Sicherung des sozialen Friedens beschlossen hat, Deutschland digital unter­ent­wi­ckelt zu lassen. So sichern wir Arbeitsplätze!
  • „There is a dis­connect in expec­ta­tions. In surveys, over 90pc of citizens don’t think their jobs will be affected by auto­mation, but a similar per­centage of CEOs think the opposite, in the number of jobs which will be mate­rially affected.“
    – Stelter: eine garan­tierte Enttäuschung!
  • „The result could be that workers should prepare for jobs which require a higher emo­tional intel­li­gence, the Governor said, in sectors such as leisure and care, as well as prac­tical employment creating bespoke ser­vices and products.“
    – Stelter: Na, das dürfte nicht reichen.