Topic:Advances in technology and automation have reduced the need for manual labor. Therefore, working hours should be reduced. To what extent do you agree.?
Answer:
A nation's development is judged by its manpower at work. In the present scenario, it is observed that the automation and technology has replaced the manual labor at work. This has led to decrease in overall working hours of present manpower. It is reckoned that with reduced working time, the wages of employees will be effected which can arise problems like unemployment. Moreover, a machine at work cannot be as efficient as a human being, where decisions take a critical role. The effects of reduced working hours will be analyzed in this essay.
Although, an automated machine can accomplish a task taking less time, but using them will reduce the working hours of a labor. Less working hours means lesser wages. An impact of this will be difficulties in fulfilling the basic needs of survival. With time, lesser wages will lead to higher levels of frustrations due to work. As a result, employees will start leaving the jobs which can arise problems like unemployment. Thus, reduced working hours will have negative impact on a person's life.
Furthermore, automating all the tasks will pose several issues to the jobs where intellectual ability is required. A machine can only perform whatever is programmed, but a human being can take decisions proactively in critical situations. For instance, air traffic control systems seek instant decisions which only a human brain can do. Hence, priority should be given to manual labor than automated machines. It is therefore evident that working hours of manual labor cannot be sacrificed on the cost of automation.
After analyzing the above views, the negative ramifications of reduced working hours are quite apparent. Hence, it is believed that to achieve perfect results, both the resources i.e. machines and manual labor should co-exist.