My Amazon boycott is over

[Benton]

(10-02-2018, 01:46 PM)Au165 Wrote: Well Amazon is kind of already doing this with their convenience stores. They use a system of cameras and sensors to basically bill people for anything they take. You don't completely automate store but you greatly reduce staffing. If I only need two people to run a store I'd normally need five for, I can pay the two 50% more and keep two workers worth of salary back. 

Not disagreeing on reducing staff due to technology (rather, I agree it happens in nearly every industry), but I don't think the trend is to pay the two remaining employees 50% more. That's part of why the economy is floundering. Companies are reducing staff and, mostly, keeping wages flat while receiving more and more tax breaks (paid for by workers earning less).

Like Reagan said, the problem with (corporate) socialism is eventually companies run out of taxpayers money to prop them up. 

Quote:The question going forward will become "are more jobs at lower pay better than less jobs at higher pay?" It's being tested out in many industries and it's why a lot of people in tech think there will need to be a universal income to offset the amount of jobs that will continue to be lost to technology advancements going forward. I mean heck don't let this 15$/hr thing with Amazon fool you, they are currently working to automate a lot of their sorting and distribution centers. This to me signals they are getting close to having a working model that will allow them to reduce part of their work force. 

From my experience, it's still an efforts across most industries to have fewer jobs at lesser pay. I'm on a couple regional workforce boards/economic development groups, and the thing I continually hear is "we can't get skilled people to work for X wages and pass a drug screen." One local employer has around 300 jobs and has maintained about 60 openings since January. It's hurt production, and they end up paying tons of overtime, but the company won't budge off the starting wage (I think it's around $12-13 an hour).