Will Automation be good or bad for jobs and society?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rozellelily
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Because where I’m from there is a lot of suffering and hardship due to low pay. People in full time work, often physically demanding and unsocial hours;

Having to use food banks
Having to either live with parents or go cap in hand to the benefits office to pay the rent
If they can pay their own rent living in the kind of slummy flatshares that are fine for students but pretty depressing when you are 40
Not having spare money at the end of the month to save

Business owners don’t care about their serfs
 
semper_catholicus said:
I would find it awkward though 😁
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Robots would really help keep people on the same page liturgically, and satisfy those Catholics who are disappointed with what they see as liturgical abuses. All the new servers would be programmed the same way, ensuring uniformity from parish to parish and oratory to oratory.
 
Ok to be fair there will be exceptions but many just see low skilled workers as replaceable.
 
If you’re 40 and struggling you may need to examine decisions you have made up to this point. Are you working a min wage job?
 
I’m slightly above minimum wage. The job I work in is essential for the provision of healthcare. Many minimum wage jobs are essential for society and there simply aren’t enough well paid jobs for everyone to move into.

I got lucky as I managed to bag an IT consultant and make it on to the property ladder 😁. Many other low paid workers aren’t so fortunate.
 
They are. Until you have valuable skills, you are an expense.
It is a given that everyone works to increase their skill.

If someone doesn’t, then they are not helping themselves or the employer.
 
So if everyone increases their skill who stacks shelves, cleans hospitals, cares for the elderly?
 
ConfusedLucy said:
So if everyone increases their skill who stacks shelves, cleans hospitals, cares for the elderly?
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Do you really believe the only skills that make you a valuable employee is the specific job?
I assure you I will hire someone to stock shelves and help customers over someone that just stocks shelves every time.

Customer service is a rare skill that helps in every job.
 
I agree it’s a skill, especially caring, but people in these jobs will never be able to make an honest living because the wages are too low.
 
Do you believe every minimum wage job should be sufficient for supporting a household?
Or are minimum wage jobs for entry into the workforce?
 
I think all jobs should pay a worker enough to live on. My late grandfather worked in a factory in outer London and supported a family so it used to be possible.

Minimum wage jobs aren’t just entry jobs. There aren’t enough non minimum wage jobs for everyone to progress to one.
 
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It’s a tough situation because on one hand everyone deserves to earn a living, but on the other hand I’m not going to shop somewhere that raises their prices because of a minimum wage hike either. There’s a taco/hotdog place by my job that I used to go to every week. They even had their own bakery for the hotdog buns (bolillo rolls). The week after the min wage increase passed they shut down the bakery and jacked their prices up and they lost at least 50% of their customers. That’s the sad reality of this whole thing.
 
If you work full time you should be able to live on your wage, otherwise what’s the point in going out to work.

Another big problem is property prices. Obviously if rents and house prices were lower wages would stretch further.

The other thing I don’t get if automation is on the up is why (at least in the UK) we are trying to increase the workforce by bullying the sick and disabled into work, increasing the pension age and pushing new mothers back to work.
 
ConfusedLucy said:
If you work full time you should be able to live on your wage, otherwise what’s the point in going out to work
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How about gaining new skills?
Getting some spending money every high school age kid wants?
And perhaps best, gaining experience to pad your resume with to gain a higher paying job?

Not every job is worth a living wage.
 
ConfusedLucy said:
we are trying to increase the workforce by bullying the sick and disabled into work, increasing the pension age and pushing new mothers back to work.
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The number of jobs available right now is greater than the number of people seeking jobs. Every hand is needed
 
Then why are there people on the dole?

And if a job isn’t worth a living wage why blame anyone for not wanting to do it?
 
This isn’t true. If you’re working a full time job and earning min wage you have just made really bad choices in your life. The job market is growing here in the US
 
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