Dave Lister
It is not only that cheap labour makes legal and illegal immigrant labour more attractive than automation, there is another factor. It takes a certain kind of managment to use automation effectively. I find a lot of companies are run by lacklustre managers with a skill in thuggery against the workforce (to keep wages and conditions down) and the abillity to corporate knife fight themselves up the ladder. These "managers" don't have the skills themselves to manage in an higher tech environment.
The kind of manager that is needed to run an automated opperation needs still to be tough in manging the finances and costs of the company or farm but he or she needs to cultivate skill in his workforce or the contractors he uses a little more. You need to treat electricians, fitters, technicians a little better and you need to send them on occaisional training courses. You might need a few of the thinkers types in your staff. It's not much really to automate things but for these people its hard: they have to treat people with respect because of the knowledge and trust needed.
As a result part of the western world have dug themselves into a hole. Once you 'deskill' its hard to 'automate' becuase you don't see the possibilities.
Ofcourse some forms of automation don't need any more technically savy workforce. It does the opposite: the machine is just purchased, bolted down pluged in and just goes with little or no service. In this case decisions to purchase are made simply on cost. These sorts of opperation can actually deskill part of the workforce. (I.E. automated lathes). It's "half arsed" automation where for instance labour is needed to still screw the caps on to toothpaste tubes that are delivered by conveyor and its this half way automation that still relies on cheap labour that is as bad.
I'll give some examples:
1 California Orange Industry: Because of labour laws Brazil is actually more automated than California and California farmers are struggling to catch up. They simply don't know how.
2 Japan: Becuase the japanese rejected immigration (apart from small numbers) they automated not only their car and electronics industries (achieving unmatched quality levels that comes with this) they've also automated retail, with vending machines arcade selling everything including contraceptives, fresh meat, fruit, automatic nail polishing etc.
3 Mediveval to moderen Europe: Although there was some degree of slavery in Europe it just wasn't widespread or acceptable. As a result windmills and water wheels and tooling began replacing slaves. At the time of Henry the 8th clockwork driven roasting spits were common. Spining and weaving was automating back then.
The middle east had a plentifull supply of slave labour in the form of christians or africans and did not progess. The Ancient romans for all their technology used steam for gimmicks such as opening temple doors. They had slaves to opperate their mines. It took englishmen to invent the steam engine in the early 1600s.
