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> Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs. Sadly, they also need to eat, and the only way they can do so now is by doing soul- and body-cr

> Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs. Sadly, they also need to eat, and the only way they can do so now is by doing soul- and body-crushing work at Amazon "fulfillment centers."

johnvanommen 9y ago
LA Times published an article that indicates that these warehouse jobs are replacing retail jobs, and they pay better. Even better, the warehouses are revitalizing parts of the country that have been blighted for decades. For instance, I used to live in San Bernardino, and these warehouse jobs have created opportunities in that city that simply didn't exist a decade ago. Instead of spending two hours a day commuting to a retail job, people are actually working in the cities that they live in.
- eru 9y ago
  Could you dig up the URL for that article, please?
simias 9y ago
I'm personally of the opinion that we must prepare for a society where unskilled jobs don't exist anymore. Evidently they'll be replaced by machines sooner or later. Cashiers, warehouse workers, harvesters... These jobs are soon going to join carriage drivers and lamplighters in history books. That's clearly a big problem for our societies which seem to collapse when unemployment raises. It's also clear that not everybody will end up as a software engineer or neurosurgeon. So what's the solution? That's left as an exercise for the reader. What would a society where only a tiny portion of the population needs to actively work to provide for everybody look like? An utopia for some, hell on earth for others.
- username223 9y ago
  > Cashiers, warehouse workers, harvesters... Paralegals, sports reporters, basic web coders... > An utopia for some, hell on earth for others. "We" could farm the "others" for nutrients and trace elements (until "we" become "others" thanks to future automation), or the "others" could kill "us," or the species as a whole could find a different arrangement than trading labor for food. I'm betting on mass extinction followed by thousands of years of bare survival by humans and a small number of similarly cockroach-esque species, but maybe we'll do better.

johnvanommen 9y ago

LA Times published an article that indicates that these warehouse jobs are replacing retail jobs, and they pay better. Even better, the warehouses are revitalizing parts of the country that have been blighted for decades. For instance, I used to live in San Bernardino, and these warehouse jobs have created opportunities in that city that simply didn't exist a decade ago. Instead of spending two hours a day commuting to a retail job, people are actually working in the cities that they live in.

eru 9y ago
Could you dig up the URL for that article, please?

simias 9y ago

I'm personally of the opinion that we must prepare for a society where unskilled jobs don't exist anymore. Evidently they'll be replaced by machines sooner or later. Cashiers, warehouse workers, harvesters... These jobs are soon going to join carriage drivers and lamplighters in history books. That's clearly a big problem for our societies which seem to collapse when unemployment raises. It's also clear that not everybody will end up as a software engineer or neurosurgeon. So what's the solution? That's left as an exercise for the reader. What would a society where only a tiny portion of the population needs to actively work to provide for everybody look like? An utopia for some, hell on earth for others.

username223 9y ago
> Cashiers, warehouse workers, harvesters... Paralegals, sports reporters, basic web coders... > An utopia for some, hell on earth for others. "We" could farm the "others" for nutrients and trace elements (until "we" become "others" thanks to future automation), or the "others" could kill "us," or the species as a whole could find a different arrangement than trading labor for food. I'm betting on mass extinction followed by thousands of years of bare survival by humans and a small number of similarly cockroach-esque species, but maybe we'll do better.