Hiring Robots

"Cyborgs don't feel pain. I do."
--Kyle Reese (The Terminator)

Gary North suggests that union longshoremen will someday be replaced with robots. A more general statement would be any price floor placed on labor, whether it be by minimum wage, union bargain, or state decree, will cause demand for labor to leave the market.

Buyers of labor might a) look in other labor markets, b) leave the labor market entirely, c) look for labor substitutes.

Labor substitutes consist of automation and robotics. Automation and robotics become more attractive when labor prices are held artificially high.

Some people feel that robots will take over the majority of jobs, creating widespread, permanent unemployment. This is a fallacy, unless labor decides to price itself off the market.