NO ONE WILL MISS LABOR:

      The deeper problem facing America is how to provide meaningful work and good wages for the tens of millions of truck drivers, accountants, factory workers and office clerks whose jobs will disappear in coming years because of robots, driverless vehicles and "machine learning" systems.

      The political debate needs to engage the taboo topic of guaranteeing economic security to families -- through a universal basic income, or a greatly expanded earned-income tax credit, or a 1930s-style plan for public-works employment. Ranting about bad trade deals won't begin to address the problem.  

      The "automation bomb" could destroy 45 percent of the work activities currently performed in the United States, representing about $2 trillion in annual wages, according to a study last year by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. We've only seen the beginning of this change, they warned. Currently, only 5 percent of occupations can be entirely automated, but 60 percent of occupations could soon see machines doing 30 percent or more of the work.

      The McKinsey analysts sharpened their argument in a new paper released last month. Their estimates, based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data covering more than 800 occupations, drew a shocking picture of the future. In manufacturing, 59 percent of activities could be automated, and that includes

"90 percent of what welders, cutters, solderers and brazers do." In food-service and accommodations, 73 percent of the work could be performed by machines. In retailing, 53 percent of current jobs could be lost.

      White-collar workers may imagine that they're safe, but that's wishful thinking. If computers can be programmed to understand speech as well as humans do, 66 percent of jobs in finance and insurance could be replaced, for example, McKinsey warns.

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