UPS’ CEO announced that drivers will be making $170,000 a year in pay and benefits by the end of a five-year employment contract. This is just the beginning for jobs in the physical economy.
A few years ago, there was a great deal of discussion about the elimination of the physical worker — i.e. jobs in the physical goods economy.
Think truck drivers, farmers, pilots, plumbers, oil rig, dock, warehouse and construction workers, etc. These are all jobs that require physical — and mental — skills to do successfully.
Many of the ideas regarding digitizing the economy were promoted by venture capitalists and tech media writers who have spent their entire careers working in the digital world and never the physical one.
The reality is that digitizing content, insurance, payments, or finance is relatively easy — while digitizing the “real” world is incredibly difficult.
If you aren’t convinced, go research the autonomous trucking startups that raised billions in capital from 2015-2020. FreightWaves covered many of these companies and their progress — or lack thereof.
Most of those businesses are now defunct, even when funded by the largest companies (Google, Uber, etc.), the most successful VCs, and some of the smartest minds in the digital economy.
The reality is that the physical world is incredibly hard to digitize and therefore automate. The real world is messy. Quantum physics and chaos theory reign.
Things happen that can’t be anticipated in a lab or a computer program.
The massive pay concessions we’ve seen labor win over the past year are primarily a function of demographics. The United States simply doesn’t have enough young people to do the physical jobs that our modern economy requires. Manufacturing is coming back to North America — and in the long-term, that is very good for our country.
Physical labor is going to be a major constraint, but this likely means that those jobs may pay much higher salaries than digital ones in the long-run.
This is not a short-term thing. It is a long-term trend. Get used to it. It’s beautiful.
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