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Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#151

Post by throwaway4220 »

downrightmike wrote: post #143
karaterobot wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not by my reading of the original comment. Seems like they're saying that layoffs result in higher skilled jobs. And here's my basis for that conclusion: > The issue that I see addressed less often is that the new jobs require by definition, a higher skill set. And what I'm saying is that there may not be new jobs, and if they are they may be lower skill jobs if history is any indication.

USA stem grads are too expensive, so companies are just opening body shops in asia/south america. So stem education was largely just a grift to get everyone they could into college.

Your first statement doesn’t really match your second statement

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#152

Post by shrubble »

This is self-reported: remember the 1000 Indians that were watching people shop at the Amazon Go stores?

Amazon told us it was all "sensors" because it fit their company narrative to do so.

I am not saying that Amazon doesn't have 750k robots and hasn't laid off 100k people... but they usually have some seasonality, plus, the quoted number is from 2021, the height of at-home shopping.

"The world's second-largest private employer employs 1.5 million people. While that's a lot, it's a decrease of over 100,000 employees from the 1.6 million workers it had in 2021"

I think a bit of skepticism is in order, is all.

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#153

Post by UberFly »

onion2k wrote: post #26
methuselah_in wrote: post #9

I don't know for aging economics this is somewhat good. But for developing countries it's horrible. Where humans has to search work each day to find food for night

Is humanity really at a point where we can't think of anything more useful than "carry things about" and "put things in a box" for those people to do? If that's really the state we're in then a bunch of robots doing it instead is the least of our problems.

Isn't it also a problem that we've put people who's capabilities are equal to those kind of tasks into the "useless" category? Not everyone is cut out to be a programmer, which by the way, will also eventually be in the "useless" bucket. In reality, "better things to do" usually means just a lot of people in poverty.

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#154

Post by batch12 »

notyourwork wrote: post #129
batch12 wrote: post #117

Is there an index that ranks companies by their benefit to society? Something like amount of taxes paid, number of employees, benefits, environmental impact, etc?

Amount of taxes paid is a benefit to society? Does that mean anyone who uses deductions is less valuable to society?

Any company? Maybe. It depends on what the company does. Either way, that was just an example of a metric off the top of my head to support the question, not a proposal for a solution.

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#155

Post by batch12 »

rcstank wrote: post #126
batch12 wrote: post #117

Is there an index that ranks companies by their benefit to society? Something like amount of taxes paid, number of employees, benefits, environmental impact, etc?

Who would create the weights that balance this system?

Whoever managed the index, I imagine.

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#156

Post by timClicks »

paxys wrote: post #144
VHRanger wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been saying that for a long time. [Keynes predicted we'd be working 15 hour weeks by now]( https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ecca.12439 ) The thing is, people don't actually want to tradeoff their labor time for leisure time all that well. They value consumption too much. There are plenty of 15 hour jobs out there. You can get one right now! But you'd need to have a smaller appartment, an older c…

> There are plenty of 15 hour jobs out there. You can get one right now! What 15 hour/week job pays enough to afford rent, food, medicine?

That was the prediction at the start of the 20th century as thinkers considered the consequences of increased automation and therefore productivity.

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#157

Post by downrightmike »

throwaway4220 wrote: post #151
downrightmike wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USA stem grads are too expensive, so companies are just opening body shops in asia/south america. So stem education was largely just a grift to get everyone they could into college.

Your first statement doesn’t really match your second statement

Get a stem(tm) education! It'll get you a job! Wait.. you cost too much now, so we're not going to hire you, instead we'll outsource.

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#158

Post by batch12 »

paxys wrote: post #130
batch12 wrote: post #117

Is there an index that ranks companies by their benefit to society? Something like amount of taxes paid, number of employees, benefits, environmental impact, etc?

Every attempt to algorithmically boil down a complex economy into a single number does more harm than good. Figure out your own priorities and decide for yourself.

Do most people have the time to evaluate every company they choose to do business with? Is there something in the middle?

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#159

Post by batch12 »

Ekaros wrote: post #128
batch12 wrote: post #117

Is there an index that ranks companies by their benefit to society? Something like amount of taxes paid, number of employees, benefits, environmental impact, etc?

Value delivered or increase of value per unit of labour is very murky to measure, but something to think about. In some sense Amazon improving efficiency of retail could be a good thing in general improving the purchasing power of average consunmer.

Good point

Re: Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

#160

Post by 6510 »

karaterobot wrote: post #145
trimethylpurine wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you can now warehouse with robots lowers the barrier of entry for warehousing, which creates new companies that will host competition against Amazon, offer contract labor for Amazon, and in both ways create jobs that are superior to the previously needed entry level pick and packer. The same laborer can now be promoted at a new company to a higher pay job that requires no greater skill set, simply becau…

That seems wrong. Why would robot warehouses lead to more and better warehouse jobs for humans? Fewer humans would be necessary overall in the existing warehouses, and it's not obvious to me why a lot more warehouses would be created. Did replacing manufacturing jobs with robot assemblers in—for example—the automotive sector, lead to more auto manufacturers and better jobs for auto workers? I don't believe it did. Th…

Let me help you with that one.

Fewer jobs & lower pay > fewer orders > fewer warehouses.

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