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You know, I hope to hell a robot replaces his job. No 75 year old man, let alone Veteran, should have to do that. A robot with replaceable knee joints is a way

You know, I hope to hell a robot replaces his job. No 75 year old man, let alone Veteran, should have to do that. A robot with replaceable knee joints is a way better fit. My sincere hope is that robots can take these painful, laborious jobs and free us mushy humans from them. I hope they can also take the jobs of the snipers and the sniped.

suriyaG 1mo ago
i 100% agree with your sentiment. but what is the replacement here? go without any insurance or salary? without providing an alternative for better life, this is basically just robbing someone off a livelihood
- vonnieda 1mo ago
  If he is 75 and still has to work to get by he has already been robbed of his livelihood. The average lifespan for males in the US is 76ish. Maybe he just does it for the love of the game, but there are so many old, sick, people in pain who have to labor like this just to get by every day. Universal basic income is a simple and obvious answer. In a few years we will have zillion dollar companies being run entirely by robots making enormous profits. Share the fucking profits with everyone so that everyone can at least live with dignity.
  - xienze 1mo ago
    > In a few years we will have zillion dollar companies being run entirely by robots making enormous profits. "Zillion", I see you've done extensive research here. And these companies aren't making any profit, nevermind enormous. > Share the fucking profits with everyone so that everyone can at least live with dignity. Give us a yearly number for what "living with dignity" looks like, multiply that by the entire population, and tell us what you come up with.
  - jmogly 1mo ago
    He definitely is doing it for the love of the game. Different generation loves to work
  - krapp 1mo ago
    >Universal basic income is a simple and obvious answer. In a few years we will have zillion dollar companies being run entirely by robots making enormous profits. Share the fucking profits with everyone so that everyone can at least live with dignity. Sure, but what do we do in the US? UBI would be politically and culturally a non-starter here unless it was extremely means tested and limited (making it no longer universal) and all other forms of welfare were repealed (under the aegis of "reducing government bloat and inefficiency.") Americans won't accept spending their hard earned taxes to make the lives of non-whites, immigrants and the indigent poor too comfortable.
  - joquarky 1mo ago
    How do we prevent UBI from becoming as corrupted and convoluted as taxes? Governments will use UBI to drive behavior and it will always favor the well connected.
    - milch 1mo ago
      Isn't the whole point of UBI that it is universal and equal, e.g. everyone gets XX$ no matter what? If it is tied somehow to behavior then it is not UBI anymore, but more like a tax credit
weard_beard 1mo ago
Sure, killing robots would stimulate the economy but I’d like to see robot victims reduce the surplus population! They’ll never match real children when it comes to dying horribly.
drfloyd51 1mo ago
I hope we have the social infrastructure to support people whose jobs are automated. Because no one, especially a 75-year-old, should starve to death living in poverty.
- ben_w 1mo ago
  Given the pension ages in much of the world, and the USA in particular (I'm guessing which side he was on in Vietnam, but Vietnam's state pension age is lower), I'd hope this was in the past tense rather than the future.
nkrisc 1mo ago
So a robot takes his job: who feeds and houses him? Or is he supposed to just go down a few rungs on the job ladder and take a worse job robots can’t currently do?
- swat535 1mo ago
  A better question would be: why do we have a society where the elderly have to work to survive and get their basic needs met?
  - nkrisc 1mo ago
    That’s also a good question, but ultimately a separate one. My point is that replacing people with robots before answering your question is irresponsible.
- nosioptar 1mo ago
  Option c: grind him up and mix him in with hamburger. Society saves money on his pension/housing/etc and consumers save a bit on their grocery bill. Didn't Paul Wolfowitz say something about how there will be no more poverty once we eat all the poor?
  - nkrisc 1mo ago
    This idea has been proposed as far back as 1729 by Jonathan Swift but it hasn't seem to caught on at all in the intervening years.
  - robocat 1mo ago
    https://www.sciencealert.com/mathematics-reveals-why-human-cannibalism-keeps-reappearing https://www.sciencealert.com/mathematics-reveals-why-human-c... cannibalism actually makes some sort of sense [...if] you're not consuming people who were themselves cannibals You can't just feed the poor to the poor - it amplifies diseases like kuru
    - nosioptar 1mo ago
watwut 1mo ago
That veteran is not doing the job because lack of robots. He does it because he needs money and cant get them otherwise. His situation wont improve with robots. Much less with robots in society run by right wing anti-social services anti-pathy millionaires.

suriyaG 1mo ago

i 100% agree with your sentiment. but what is the replacement here? go without any insurance or salary? without providing an alternative for better life, this is basically just robbing someone off a livelihood

vonnieda 1mo ago
If he is 75 and still has to work to get by he has already been robbed of his livelihood. The average lifespan for males in the US is 76ish. Maybe he just does it for the love of the game, but there are so many old, sick, people in pain who have to labor like this just to get by every day. Universal basic income is a simple and obvious answer. In a few years we will have zillion dollar companies being run entirely by robots making enormous profits. Share the fucking profits with everyone so that everyone can at least live with dignity.
- xienze 1mo ago
  > In a few years we will have zillion dollar companies being run entirely by robots making enormous profits. "Zillion", I see you've done extensive research here. And these companies aren't making any profit, nevermind enormous. > Share the fucking profits with everyone so that everyone can at least live with dignity. Give us a yearly number for what "living with dignity" looks like, multiply that by the entire population, and tell us what you come up with.
- jmogly 1mo ago
  He definitely is doing it for the love of the game. Different generation loves to work
- krapp 1mo ago
  >Universal basic income is a simple and obvious answer. In a few years we will have zillion dollar companies being run entirely by robots making enormous profits. Share the fucking profits with everyone so that everyone can at least live with dignity. Sure, but what do we do in the US? UBI would be politically and culturally a non-starter here unless it was extremely means tested and limited (making it no longer universal) and all other forms of welfare were repealed (under the aegis of "reducing government bloat and inefficiency.") Americans won't accept spending their hard earned taxes to make the lives of non-whites, immigrants and the indigent poor too comfortable.
- joquarky 1mo ago
  How do we prevent UBI from becoming as corrupted and convoluted as taxes? Governments will use UBI to drive behavior and it will always favor the well connected.
  - milch 1mo ago
    Isn't the whole point of UBI that it is universal and equal, e.g. everyone gets XX$ no matter what? If it is tied somehow to behavior then it is not UBI anymore, but more like a tax credit

weard_beard 1mo ago

Sure, killing robots would stimulate the economy but I’d like to see robot victims reduce the surplus population! They’ll never match real children when it comes to dying horribly.

drfloyd51 1mo ago

I hope we have the social infrastructure to support people whose jobs are automated. Because no one, especially a 75-year-old, should starve to death living in poverty.

ben_w 1mo ago
Given the pension ages in much of the world, and the USA in particular (I'm guessing which side he was on in Vietnam, but Vietnam's state pension age is lower), I'd hope this was in the past tense rather than the future.

nkrisc 1mo ago

So a robot takes his job: who feeds and houses him? Or is he supposed to just go down a few rungs on the job ladder and take a worse job robots can’t currently do?

swat535 1mo ago
A better question would be: why do we have a society where the elderly have to work to survive and get their basic needs met?
- nkrisc 1mo ago
  That’s also a good question, but ultimately a separate one. My point is that replacing people with robots before answering your question is irresponsible.
nosioptar 1mo ago
Option c: grind him up and mix him in with hamburger. Society saves money on his pension/housing/etc and consumers save a bit on their grocery bill. Didn't Paul Wolfowitz say something about how there will be no more poverty once we eat all the poor?
- nkrisc 1mo ago
  This idea has been proposed as far back as 1729 by Jonathan Swift but it hasn't seem to caught on at all in the intervening years.
- robocat 1mo ago
  https://www.sciencealert.com/mathematics-reveals-why-human-cannibalism-keeps-reappearing https://www.sciencealert.com/mathematics-reveals-why-human-c... cannibalism actually makes some sort of sense [...if] you're not consuming people who were themselves cannibals You can't just feed the poor to the poor - it amplifies diseases like kuru
  - nosioptar 1mo ago

watwut 1mo ago

That veteran is not doing the job because lack of robots. He does it because he needs money and cant get them otherwise. His situation wont improve with robots. Much less with robots in society run by right wing anti-social services anti-pathy millionaires.