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From WashPo, "Rise of the machines"

Lafayette

Lafayette

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From Washington Post: Rise of the machines

They watched as a forklift hoisted the boxes into the air and followed the forklift into a building where a row of old mechanical presses shook the concrete floor. The forklift honked and carried the boxes past workers in steel-toed boots and earplugs. It rounded a bend and arrived at the other corner of the building, at the end of an assembly line.

The line was intended for 12 workers, but two were no-shows. One had just been jailed for drug possession and violating probation. Three other spots were empty because the company hadn’t found anybody to do the work. That left six people on the line jumping from spot to spot, snapping parts into place and building metal containers by hand, too busy to look up as the forklift now came to a stop beside them.

In factory after American factory, the surrender of the industrial age to the age of automation continues at a record pace. The transformation is decades along, its primary reasons well-established: a search for cost-cutting and efficiency.

But as one factory in Wisconsin is showing, the forces driving automation can evolve — for reasons having to do with the condition of the American workforce. The robots were coming in not to replace humans, and not just as a way to modernize, but also because reliable humans had become so hard to find. It was part of a labor shortage spreading across America, one that economists said is stemming from so many things at once. A low unemployment rate. The retirement of baby boomers. A younger generation that doesn’t want factory jobs. And, more and more, a workforce in declining health: because of alcohol, because of despair and depression, because of a spike in the use of opioids and other drugs.
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"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves ..."
[h=3][/h]
 
Smells like propaganda to me.

"We didn't give your jobs to machines because we're greedy. You guys were toop high and irresponsible."

Kinds like, "It was all those poor people getting loans they couldn't afford that caused the housing collapse. Not rampant fraud and simple greed. Couldn't be that!"
 
Lafayette said:
From Washington Post: Rise of the machines



"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves ..."
[h=3][/h]
Click to expand...

In 1999 we were visiting with a college friend of my wife's who headed HR for a call center. She said that they couldn't drug screen new hires because more than 40% failed. Since most quit after less than a month, the tests were considered a waste of money. Calling police to respond to an on site disturbance or escort someone out happened every 3-4 weeks. I think that area was experiencing a crack/meth epidemic.

This problem is Made in America.

And... Only Trump can fix it!
 
All this time we have had to see this coming we did......nothing.

No Plans...No Nothing.

SAD




Note: I have a whole theory that this current civilization is now so deep into a death spiral that it's replacement is irreversible, probably sooner rather than later.

And it is not that people dont want factory jobs exactly, it is that increasingly people are not equipped to work, dont want to be equipped to work, and dont think that they should have to work ,....because money grows on trees....or something.
 
<alt>doxygen said:
in 1999 we were visiting with a college friend of my wife's who headed hr for a call center. She said that they couldn't drug screen new hires because more than 40% failed. Since most quit after less than a month, the tests were considered a waste of money. Calling police to respond to an on site disturbance or escort someone out happened every 3-4 weeks. I think that area was experiencing a crack/meth epidemic.

This problem is made in america.

And... Only trump can fix it!
Click to expand...


MAGA? Lol ..............
 
Hawkeye10 said:
All this time we have had to see this coming we did......nothing.

No Plans...No Nothing.

SAD


Note: I have a whole theory that this current civilization is now so deep into a death spiral that it's replacement is irreversible, probably sooner rather than later.

And it is not that people dont want factory jobs exactly, it is that increasingly people are not equipped to work, dont want to be equipped to work, and dont think that they should have to work ,....because money grows on trees....or something.
Click to expand...


Well, it starts with the individual. I switched majors over 35 years ago so I could cope with the tech revolution. People who now want high paying mfg. jobs that pay enough to raise a family on should have a skill set that accommodates robotics. Bolt turners are obsolete, and have been for decades.
 
<alt>doxygen said:
Well, it starts with the individual. I switched majors over 35 years ago so I could cope with the tech revolution. People who now want high paying mfg. jobs that pay enough to raise a family on should have a skill set that accommodates robotics. Bolt turners are obsolete, and have been for decades.
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I was more thinking of those who think that they should be able to get out of the sack whenever they damn well please and somebody had better be providing food , a place to live and medical care.....free sex changes on demand for extra credit, because that expectation would be a little unreasonable......for now.



I digress.



CARRY ON






:2wave:
 
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WE, THE SHEEPLE

Hawkeye10 said:
Note: I have a whole theory that this current civilization is now so deep into a death spiral that it's replacement is irreversible, probably sooner rather than later.

And it is not that people dont want factory jobs exactly, it is that increasingly people are not equipped to work, dont want to be equipped to work, and dont think that they should have to work ,....because money grows on trees....or something.
Click to expand...

Interesting to note, but what has happened in America has happened before many, many times. One of note is the Roman Empire that lasted 400 years, and then came apart at the seems. Why?

Dereliction of duty. The inability of Roman nobility to understand that digging gold out of Spain and paying for standing armies could no longer protect Rome. And it didn't.

We have this same "nobility", but ours is free-democracy where we should have known better - but didn't. By means of human simplicity, we actually believed that Moneyed Interests (motivated by low-taxation introduced by Reckless Ronnie in the 1980s) were "taking care of us". They could not care less - their only concern is THEIR BOTTOM LINE.

This happens when only a minor percentage of the population decides to vote, and the majority of voters stay home and spectate the event on the BoobTube. Democracy is not a "spectated event" like the Rose Bowl. It is a mechanism in which we must participate.

We Americans have some of the lowest voter-turnout rates on earth. This too is Dereliction of Duty. From Pew Research, see infographic here: US Trails Most Developed Countries in Voter Turnout

Do we think that "democracy" is something that happens "all by itself"?

Our ranking internationally is not the lowest - but pretty damn close to it. And when we do vote a Hillary Clinton to be PotUS (by a heady margin of 2% of the popular vote), archaic instruments from the 19th century decide otherwise. Both the Electoral College and Gerrymandering must be done away with.

Only the popular-vote in any other Developed Democracy on this planet is sufficient to elect a president.

So who are We, the Sheeple to complain ... ?
 
Lafayette said:
WE, THE SHEEPLE



Interesting to note, but what has happened in America has happened before many, many times. One of note is the Roman Empire that lasted 400 years, and then came apart at the seems. Why?

Dereliction of duty. The inability of Roman nobility to understand that digging gold out of Spain and paying for standing armies could no longer protect Rome. And it didn't.

We have this same "nobility", but ours is free-democracy where we should have known better - but didn't. By means of human simplicity, we actually believed that Moneyed Interests (motivated by low-taxation introduced by Reckless Ronnie in the 1980s) were "taking care of us". They could not care less - their only concern is THEIR BOTTOM LINE.

This happens when only a minor percentage of the population decides to vote, and the majority of voters stay home and spectate the event on the BoobTube. Democracy is not a "spectated event" like the Rose Bowl. It is a mechanism in which we must participate.

We Americans have some of the lowest voter-turnout rates on earth. This too is Dereliction of Duty. From Pew Research, see infographic here: US Trails Most Developed Countries in Voter Turnout

Do we think that "democracy" is something that happens "all by itself"?

Our ranking internationally is not the lowest - but pretty damn close to it. And when we do vote a Hillary Clinton to be PotUS (by a heady margin of 2% of the popular vote), archaic instruments from the 19th century decide otherwise. Both the Electoral College and Gerrymandering must be done away with.

Only the popular-vote in any other Developed Democracy on this planet is sufficient to elect a president.

So who are We, the Sheeple to complain ... ?
Click to expand...

Dereliction of Duty:

Not caring enough to vote
Not caring enough to vote for only the good people
Not being willing to make choices AKA "I WANT IT ALL, FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET ME THAT OR I'll VOTE YOU OUT".
Not objecting to bad law...worse often demanding it
Not objecting to the ever increasing corruption in Washington
Not objecting to the so-called journalists, who are supposed to be watching government, increasingly refusing to do their jobs.
Regularly abusing our servants

And so on and so forth....
 
Oh man...yet another thread about how robots will put everyone out of work eventually.

They are doing nothing of the kind.

This nonsense has been going on since the industrial revolution...that automation would put everyone out of work. Well, guess what? Unemployment is at 4% and our standard of living is WAAAAY higher than it was during the industrial revolution...even though there are millions of robotic devices that took people's jobs.

Robotics are fantastic for humans as they do the ****ty jobs that almost no one wants to do AND do it so efficiently that it lowers the cost of the things they build so more people can afford them.

Robotics is a FANTASTIC thing.

I hope they take over EVERY demeaning, repetitive/dangerous job currently done by humans one day VERY soon.

I have (briefly) done factory work on a major production line...and it was AWFUL. And everyone I talked to hated it as well. Not did not mind it....HATED it. You did the same thing a few times a minute, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day...with no change.
Do a hot, noisy, mind-numbing, dehumanizing job like that for even a month and then tell me how horrible it is that robots might one day do the job for you.
 
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DA60 said:
Do a hot, noisy, mind-numbing, dehumanizing job like that for even a month and then tell me how horrible it is that robots might one day do the job for you.
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people may hate work but will keep it rather than turn it over to a robot.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
All this time we have had to see this coming we did......nothing.

No Plans...No Nothing.

SAD




Note: I have a whole theory that this current civilization is now so deep into a death spiral that it's replacement is irreversible, probably sooner rather than later.

And it is not that people dont want factory jobs exactly, it is that increasingly people are not equipped to work, dont want to be equipped to work, and dont think that they should have to work ,....because money grows on trees....or something.
Click to expand...

People don't want to work they want to sit at a desk and collect a check.
I seee it all the time. How dare someone ask them to work overtime.

Kinda pathetic.
 
Lafayette said:
Our ranking internationally is not the lowest - but pretty damn close to it. And when we do vote a Hillary Clinton to be PotUS (by a heady margin of 2% of the popular vote), archaic instruments from the 19th century decide otherwise. Both the Electoral College and Gerrymandering must be done away with.

Only the popular-vote in any other Developed Democracy on this planet is sufficient to elect a president.
Click to expand...

He was elected by a popular vote in each state.

You see those archaic instruments insure all votes count not just the votes in 2 states.
Isn't that the liberal mantra? All votes count?
 
ludin said:
He was elected by a popular vote in each state.

You see those archaic instruments insure all votes count not just the votes in 2 states.
Isn't that the liberal mantra? All votes count?
Click to expand...

Mantra or not - the Electoral College DISTORTS the popular vote for two reasons that seem to have escaped you:
*The first is the allocation of EC-votes by population, where the small states have a higher proportion of EC-voters per population-number! (See that state-wide disproportionality of the Electoral College here.)
*The second is because gerrymandering has allowed the above allocation to force election outcomes that benefit one party or the other depending upon how electoral districts are fashioned.

THE POPULAR VOTE HAS BEEN WILDLY DISTORTED!

When are you going to understand that simple fact?

Huh? When ... ?
 
Lafayette said:
Mantra or not - the Electoral College DISTORTS the popular vote for two reasons that seem to have escaped you:
*The first is the allocation of EC-votes by population, where the small states have a higher proportion of EC-voters per population-number! (See that state-wide disproportionality of the Electoral College here.)
*The second is because gerrymandering has allowed the above allocation to force election outcomes that benefit one party or the other depending upon how electoral districts are fashioned.

THE POPULAR VOTE HAS BEEN WILDLY DISTORTED!

When are you going to understand that simple fact?

Huh? When ... ?
Click to expand...

*sigh* yet another person that doesn't understand anything about the EC. Do you people purplosely miss civics class or do you just not understand how american government works.

First off the only EC's given out by population are the seats in the House. As stated in the constitution based off census numbers a number of representatives will be assigned.
all states are guaranteed at least 1 rep as you can't have half of a person. the rest of the seats are assigned by a pretty complex mathematical formula based on the population of the state.

that is why CA gets 53 reps and WY gets 1 rep. those are the only EC's that are based on population. so CA gets 53 reps to WY 1 rep.
now the next factor in the EC is the senate.

The senate does not represent the population of a state. therefore trying to factor senate as part of the population is a fallacy.
The senate represents the interests of the state itself. Since all states are equal in power every state gets 2 senators.

the Total EC of a state is adding the number of reps and the senate together.

The purpose of the EC is so that this doesn't happen and this election is a perfect example. The number of people that voted in CA wiped out 38 other state votes. IE meaning all the votes in 38 states would not have counted.
the EC prevents that from happening. It allows that all people no matter what state have a voice in the election. The winner is the person that appeals to the most people in the most states.

gerrymandering only affects local elections it has no impact on the presidential election.

When are you going to understand how are government works and why it works that way?
sorry i have a huge issue with NY and CA getting to decide who the president is.

so you don't believe in all votes counting.
 
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