/pine
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Robots to opperate bulldozers, excavators and other construction vehicles...
- Thread starter /pine
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mcfarmall
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Interesting how the uninformed call any vehicle used in construction a "bulldozer." Referring to the author of the linked article, not the OP.
CobyRupert
Super Member
Ahh.. Good ol' capitalism!
Automation, just like off-shoring with cheap labor, makes business more efficient, goods and services more cheaper, consumer and producers wins!
There however seems to be a disconnect with this model as to where consumers come from.
Automation, just like off-shoring with cheap labor, makes business more efficient, goods and services more cheaper, consumer and producers wins!
There however seems to be a disconnect with this model as to where consumers come from.
mcfarmall
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Many kids nowdays don't even want to get their driver's license let alone actually work. People are going to build buildings, make pharmaceuticals, process and grow food whether humans want to help or not. I'm like Charlies dad in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Don't whine because you lost your job screwing caps on toothpaste tubes, get a job fixing the machine that screws the caps on.
CobyRupert
Super Member
Ok..
So the toothpaste tube machine replaces 10 workers, and 1 person gets a job maintaining or operating the machine.
Again, there seems to be a disconnect....
So the toothpaste tube machine replaces 10 workers, and 1 person gets a job maintaining or operating the machine.
Again, there seems to be a disconnect....
mcfarmall
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Not sure what you mean. My point is twofold.
1. When things beyond your control happen to you, you improvise, adapt, and overcome. (Lost job as capper, obtained job as capper repairman)
2. Not many people will pay $10/tube for toothpaste so that 10 people can have a job. I wouldn't. I'd buy the toothpaste made in a factory on an automated filling and packaging line that's run by 3 people.
CobyRupert
Super Member
....who do you sell your widget (be it toothpaste, whatever) to now that only 3 out of 10 people have jobs?
What do you do with the 7 people who are no longer needed? The answer is clear if you look at life expectancy trends in the U.S.
Yes, business owners and American (Walmart) consumers have made choices, both in their own self-interest, to make and buy cheap foreign products at the expense of U.S. manufacturing and middle class labor jobs. That's capitalism. That's self-interest. Very understandable. People want the cheaper stuff, producers need to react and compete with the next guy.
The disconnect I'm talking about is how customers have things so much better and cheaper (winning!), but labor has stagnant and downward wages and a falling standard of living (losing), as if they're not the same people!
It's like some people expect "consumers" to be some constant presence who will always be there to buy (cheap, efficiently produced!) products unrelated to the fact those same people now have no jobs. =Disconnect.
What do you do with the 7 people who are no longer needed? The answer is clear if you look at life expectancy trends in the U.S.
Yes, business owners and American (Walmart) consumers have made choices, both in their own self-interest, to make and buy cheap foreign products at the expense of U.S. manufacturing and middle class labor jobs. That's capitalism. That's self-interest. Very understandable. People want the cheaper stuff, producers need to react and compete with the next guy.
The disconnect I'm talking about is how customers have things so much better and cheaper (winning!), but labor has stagnant and downward wages and a falling standard of living (losing), as if they're not the same people!
It's like some people expect "consumers" to be some constant presence who will always be there to buy (cheap, efficiently produced!) products unrelated to the fact those same people now have no jobs. =Disconnect.
CobyRupert
Super Member
Sorry to take this thread on a tangent....
....as an engineer: "Robots are cool!"
....as an engineer: "Robots are cool!"
Peter 315
Super Member
Maximum Overdrive MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986) OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER! - YouTube
Oldoak
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Corporate America doesn't care, just so Wall Street is happy. There is more money in this country than ever before. It's just that fewer people have it.
