http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/sd-me-harmony-doll-20170913-story.html
On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 1:12 AM H LV <[email protected]> wrote: > Btw, a so called "burger flipper" isn't hired just to flip burgers. Even > if you had an unlimited budget with current technology you could not build > a robot to perform all the tasks a "burger flipper" does at a restaurant. > > Harry > > On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 12:43 AM, H LV <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Of course they are doing it to make money and they don't care if their >> products put people out of work. The point is employers aren't going to use >> robots in the service sector if the robots are more expensive and/or less >> flexible than a human. I think most people on the list are unaware of how >> subservient labour has become over the last 30 years with stagnate real >> wage growth, the decline of unions and labour codes being rewritten to >> allow for a more flexible workforce. >> >> Harry >> >> >> On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 4:55 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> H LV <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> the other automation you speak off will proceed slowly as long as >>>> social security for "working age" men and women is linked to paid >>>> employment. >>>> >>> The people developing this technology are doing it to make money. They >>> don't care whether their products put people out of work. >>> >>> Let me be blunt and say that I developed many software products which >>> put people out of work. I was automating work that was previously done by >>> people. I knew that. Everyone knew that. It did not slow us down. To be >>> honest, it did not bother us. We did it to make money, and to save the >>> customer money. >>> >>> At present, Amazon.com is taking jobs away from enormous numbers of >>> people in retail. Far more than the total number industrial workers, or >>> miners being put out of work by the decline in coal consumption. Retail has >>> lost about 100,000 jobs from October 2016 to May 2017, which is more than >>> the total number of miners. ". . . [D]epartment stores have lost 18 times >>> more workers than coal mining since 2001." >>> >>> >>> https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/the-silent-crisis-of-retail-employment/523428/ >>> >>> This is deeply regrettable for the people losing their jobs. I hate to >>> think of it. I sympathize with them. I hope society can help them, and I >>> hope they find other employment. But I am not going to stop using >>> Amazon.com. I seldom went to malls in the past, and I am going to go to >>> them now, out of charity. I do not see how anything can slow down this >>> trend, and I do not think it would be a good idea to try to slow it down. >>> Amazon.com will not do anything to "ensure security" for "working age men >>> and women." No corporation would. Any corporation that tries would be >>> bankrupted by the competition. That is how capitalism works. >>> >>> Capitalism cannot solve this problem. Society as a whole must address >>> it. I doubt there are any clean, neat, quick or inexpensive solutions. >>> >>> - Jed >>> >>> >> >
