Robert B. Reich: Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer

What are “routine producers”? What will be their fate in the future?
Robert B. Reich’s idea of routine producers is that they are the type of workers who work in factories and do work that can and will eventually be taken over by machinery. Reich’s routine producers “boat” is sinking; this is due to the idea that factory jobs can and will be done in other countries by people willing to work for less than what people in the United States will work for. “The consequence is clearest in older, heavy industries, where high-volume, standardized production continues its ineluctable move to where labor is cheapest and most accessible around the world” (Reich 421). As technology advances, so does industrialization. Companies will take there business to where every they can get the cheapest work and now that technology can support this, routine producers will be out of jobs. An example of how technology supports low cost production is how in 1990, an airline employed 1,000 data producers in 2 different countries, who entered flight information that was then sent to a data base in Dallas. Being able to hire data producers in other countries, who are willing to work for less, eliminates jobs in America for routine producers. As these jobs are lost to machinery and to outsourcing, the role for routine producers in American society will vanish. The only way for this not to happen is if other countries standards of living rise and even out with Americans, so that there is not much of a competition between workers and the wages they are getting paid, in order for a company to make the profit that they want. However, this has a very slim chance of happening.

Works cited
Reich, Robert B. “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer.” A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for College Writers. Lee A. Jacobs. 7th Ed. New York; Bedford St. Martins, 2006. Pp 420-433.