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America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

washingtonpost.com

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Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#101

Post by lesuorac »

rgblambda wrote: post #67
keiferski wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess most of these jobs don’t allow for music or YouTube to be used during work? I’m just thinking that people already spend a lot of time just consuming content, so if it were possible to watch YouTube while at the factory, maybe it wouldn’t be as unpopular.

From my limited experience working in a factory environment, listening to music can be a real workplace safety issue if it reduces your ability to hear forklifts or coworkers shouting warnings.

Do you hire deaf people?

I always found the laws prohibiting drivers from wearing earplugs (some exemptions for motorcycles) and the like pretty funny.

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#102

Post by stouset »

Pulcinella wrote: post #95
stouset wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The job being monotonous is clearly enough of a downside that significantly higher pay and benefits are needed to attract talent. Paying higher wages might help retain employees (or not! there are jobs people just won’t keep doing no matter the pay) but doing so could easily increase costs to the point where your product is uncompetitive in the market. It also might just be worth having higher turnover in order to ke…

We need actual data to decide how significant is "significant." Otherwise you will just have businesses complaining no one wants to work for "significantly" higher pay (a whole $0.05/hour more).

I’m sorry but this is a ridiculous take. $0.05/hr is $104 a year for a full-time job. Zero people are going to have that be the tipping point for them to take on a monotonous, often physically draining job that they’d otherwise turn down.

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#103

Post by [deleted] »

phillyboy82 wrote: post #96
pseudocomposer wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously, the “higher pay and significantly better benefits” are not actually significantly better. I’d rather we address that than just exploit some other workers overseas where they’re out of sight, out of mind. Honestly, it seems like tariffs on imported goods would be the way around this, but also, we need to be sure that money is going to the people doing the work, not just the owners. Speaking of which, I don’…

Wrong. Kids brains are fried from phones / social media so much that they struggle with repetitive labor. I see this all the time at an automotive plant. UAW wages are good, especially after the last contract, but we still get people who struggle putting a sticker on a car for an hour straight before their break or task switch.

[deleted]

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#104

Post by flybrand »

gaindustries wrote: post #72
thaack wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all full time 4x10 work with the employer covering 100% of health insurance premiums.

There's somethhing you're not telling us or not being honest about.

It's common. People would rather work in a Wal-Mart as it is more social and less demanding. The physical space is nicer.

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#105

Post by stouset »

snozolli wrote: post #62
stouset wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The job being monotonous is clearly enough of a downside that significantly higher pay and benefits are needed to attract talent. Paying higher wages might help retain employees (or not! there are jobs people just won’t keep doing no matter the pay) but doing so could easily increase costs to the point where your product is uncompetitive in the market. It also might just be worth having higher turnover in order to ke…

there are jobs people just won’t keep doing no matter the pay I do not believe this common claim.

Obviously there is some ludicrous threshold of pay where more people will decide to do some job. But for practical purposes the pay needs to be in line with still being able to price your products competitively in a global marketplace.

Even $10,000/yr more might not be enough to move the needle all that much on a job that’s backbreaking, monotonous, and with little prospects for career growth. Especially if you have a limited pool of applicants due to your location.

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#106

Post by carlosjobim »

jltsiren wrote: post #77
carlosjobim wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Some jobs are just inherently bad. People do them, if there are no better jobs available. If you increase the wage, people will do the job for a while, until they have reached sufficient financial stability. Then they can afford to switch to another job that pays less but provides a better quality of life. Or to retire early in extreme cases.

That's fantastic! Wouldn't it be tyranny to make people spend their whole lives doing such a job? It's good that people do it for a while for a good wage and then move on.

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#107

Post by ASalazarMX »

scns wrote: post #58
keiferski wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess most of these jobs don’t allow for music or YouTube to be used during work? I’m just thinking that people already spend a lot of time just consuming content, so if it were possible to watch YouTube while at the factory, maybe it wouldn’t be as unpopular.

Listening to music should work, no pun intended. Watching YouTube though?

Having worked at a very simple factory job that involved hot-pressing plastic-aluminium film into shapes, yeah, that would end badly. It's unskilled job, that doesn't mean it's mindless.

If you look away from your job you might lose a finger,.. or *gasp* even worse, stop production!

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#108

Post by ryandrake »

mullingitover wrote: post #44

The US spent decades transitioning from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, deliberately. Now there's a populist making political hay, throwing out numbers about trade deficits, which ignores revenue from services . Yes, there is have a trade deficit on goods, that was a long-term strategy because services were a superior investment. Manufacturing is an inferior way to make money unless you're planning to g…

I don't know why people romanticize 1950-style manufacturing jobs so much, like they are some kind of objectively ideal job. These jobs really weren't great. Bunch of dudes standing at an assembly line all day physically busting their asses and sweating it out. Sometimes in a physically hazardous environment. Sometimes breathing stinky and/or harmful chemicals. Sometimes surrounded by ear-damaging loud noises. Sometimes mind-numbingly repetitive work. This work sucks! And we should be happy that as a country we managed to transition our economy away from depending on this kind of work! Why on earth are we trying to bring it back?

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#109

Post by ASalazarMX »

lenkite wrote: post #98
stouset wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The job being monotonous is clearly enough of a downside that significantly higher pay and benefits are needed to attract talent. Paying higher wages might help retain employees (or not! there are jobs people just won’t keep doing no matter the pay) but doing so could easily increase costs to the point where your product is uncompetitive in the market. It also might just be worth having higher turnover in order to ke…

A lot of folks like repeatable, monotonous jobs. They can loose themselves in a trance doing the same thing for hours. The problem is that American bosses will never hire these kind of people. They can never pass the interview game.

Except you can't just zone away in a factory job. Workers need to pay attention if they don't like injuries. It the job doesn't need much skill, it doesn't necessarily mean it's easy or safe.

Re: America is getting an AI gold rush instead of a factory boom

#110

Post by ASalazarMX »

carlosjobim wrote: post #70
thaack wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people in Western world also cannot imagine staying at conveyor belt or table doing the same assembly task whole week. I work in a factory and see this daily. My family owns a small plastic manufacturing plant in the US. This is the biggest problem they face. The western worker's appetite for a low skill monotonous manufacturing job is very small. The business loses employees to Walmart etc. despite the factor…

[flagged]

I think you're being too hard. Working at a Wal-Mart is much easier than a factory job, considering the latter is usually dangerous, and has more RSI risk.

It'd have to pay at least double, and me being in a predicament, for me to gamble with my health, and only until I find a better option.

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