A robotic sewing machine could throw garment workers out of a job

Outsourcing really just is the last step before automation.<p>The major trend to look for is always cost of production where labour being the number one cost.<p>In order for products to keep getting cheaper the cost has to come down. This trend doesn&#x27;t stop just because we outsource it to China or Brazil or India and so even they become too expensive.<p>Unless economist start factoring in technology as one of the key economic factors rather than treating it as they do now as an externality we will still fight about whether too much government or too little government is going to save us all. And the politicians wont do anything because they don&#x27;t see it projected in the forecasts their advisors give them.<p>In the meantime robots are going to slowly but surely put most of us out of a job in almost all the industries we know of right now.<p>Or put another way – it&#x27;s the technology stupid.

This seems pretty much an obvious area for automation, seeing as how repetitive sewing can get...and that automation in the clothing&#x2F;textile industry was the birthplace of one of the first disruptive technologies. Thousands of people lost their jobs, thousands of people gained jobs as clothing could now be made faster and easier than before. This just continues a trend that&#x27;s been going on for centuries.

This is highly relevant for the recently-bankrupt American Apparel, which has a fundamental proposition (even in its name) of producing clothing in the USA:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;la-fi-american-apparel-manufacturing-html-20151005-htmlstory.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;la-fi-american-apparel-manuf...</a><p>Wages in their current location will be rising from $9&#x2F;hour to $15&#x2F;hour over the next five years. It doesn&#x27;t seem tenable in that situation to produce goods at the same level of technology that overseas workers use. So this may be the perfect opportunity to get serious about automation for clothing manufacturing. Send in the sewbots.

Seems like a natural consequence of rising standards of living in the countries that this work was previously outsourced to. The garment industry has always exploited low-cost workers - from children, to women, immigrants, China, south-east Asia. When the cost of labor is no longer a significant input to the equation (because there is little to no actual human labor involved), I would expect to see production move back into the markets nearer to customers, to cut the cost of transportation.<p>And transportation costs are going to go down, as the distribution networks become more automated, so I suppose the next domino is going to be the cost of energy.

<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;sections&#x2F;money&#x2F;2015&#x2F;05&#x2F;21&#x2F;408234543&#x2F;will-your-job-be-done-by-a-machine" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;sections&#x2F;money&#x2F;2015&#x2F;05&#x2F;21&#x2F;408234543&#x2F;will-...</a><p>^Some researchers gathered some data and tried to determine the chances of a job being automated by robots. It&#x27;s a little scary but impressive how so many jobs that exist today can just be done by robots.

While I appreciate the advances in technology to sew garments, I wonder how this will negatively impact the economies, which are thriving because of the garment business.

Why does this remind me of the invention (and widespread adoption) of the Cotton Gin, which itself is partly blamed for the United States Civil War? The parallels to the Industrial Revolution are everywhere you look these days.

Why do we need to sew, anyways? Why not invent some sort of a glue (or a binding agent, to be more vague) to hold the pieces together? Something that&#x27;ll last a 1000 washes and never wear.

Good. Working in a garment factory is not just mindnumbingly monotonous, but backbreaking and dangerous.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hesperian.org&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;en_work_2013&#x2F;en_work_2013_garments06.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hesperian.org&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;en_work_2013&#x2F;en_...</a>

What if garment workers were able to buy their own robotic sewing machines? Then we could have distributed labor and manufacturing and nobody would be out of a job.<p>Services like Uber will likely work this way when automation hits; invest in a car and put it to work.<p>In any case, I&#x27;ll take one!

A conspiracy theorist might say there&#x27;s more to this than meets the eye.<p>DARPA caring about the cost of uniforms seems silly. $1000? per year per person who costs a stack more than that to train and pay.

Where are the luddites when you need them?