Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because they participate in union busting? https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/09/amazon-...
Because if they don't, it's the end? You can't seriously expect corporations to welcome unions?
Why not?
1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
311–320 of 549 posts
Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
> we still don't have a robot that can take out the trash Because it's hard to justify the $$$ on a robot to automate a job that takes 30 seconds once a week. Modern people don't realize it, but an awful lot of household drudgery has been automated. I'm old enough to remember life before the microwave. What a marvelous time saver that is! You can even buy one from the thrift store for $10. I remember them being $1000…
Add to that the cheap-as-dirt popcorn maker. My mom would make popcorn in a frying pan. The machine is sooo much easier. There are the mothers of kitchen automation: 1. refrigerator 2. garbage disposal 3. dishwasher 4. electric / gas stove and oven These are really marvelous inventions. It seems I spent half my childhood washing dishes by hand. Ugh.
I'll be honest: I do think frying pan popcorn legitimately tastes better. That said, it can't be argued it's far easier to use the machine.
Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So aside from “just stop buying from Amazon” what can we do ? The "just stop buying amazon" arguments never made sense to me in the first place, because most people who use it are the ones budget-stretched in the first place. A lot of rural communities have no other viable options for some items as well. It will take massive government action and that's it. There's no other way we can fix this problem. Wages are su…
Wages are suppressed because it's _legal enough_ to suppress them I'm not an Amazon defender by any means, but doesn't Amazon pay the best in terms of comparable work which is why the warehouse jobs are so competitive to get? Or is that just Amazon PR to stave off regulations
Only one data point but the local Amazon warehouse I worked at for a while has a Target warehouse about a mile away that pays ~20% more for similar work. People were leaving for them in droves, including management.
I'm sure the competitiveness varies wildly in different areas though.
Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like he did due-diligence on reviews.
Still a bit early to celebrate. You really can’t trust aggregate review scores these days—even if you scan them with a 3rd party tool.
Not only that. Amazon also seems to have no idea what they sell shoe wise.
Bought winter boots from them. So not sure on what size to get, because you should buy those larger. I also have wide feet too but they only offer them in M not E or wider. I don't know the brand yet, so no knowledge on how they fit vs size listed. Finally ordered after research online.
Instead of the size I ordered, a 10 M, I get a 10 AA. It doesn't fit obviously as it's too narrow. Contact support and ask them what to do. They assure me I should get them exchanged and they will add a note to the warehouse to make extra sure I get the 10 M and not accidentally a 10 AA again. Days later I get 10 AAs again... Same chat with support who probably laugh to themselves at the stupid customer 'note to the warehouse haha' (do they actually do this? Would any overworked/underpaid warehouse worker even look at that?). I have to cancel the order and order a new pair in 11 M, which if I actually get that means they're gonna be too large. Luckily an 11 AA arrived. Go figure.
Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also the other option similar to what happened after the New York Elevator Operator Strike in 1945 -- the total elimination of a profession. https://www.inc.com/thomas-koulopoulos/100-years-ago-we-fear... "It wasn't until the middle of the twentieth century that the tipping point came along for the driverless elevator as the result of a strike by the elevator operators' union in New York City in 1945. The str…
"being a temp for future robots" While everyone was predicting that the dirty jobs would get automated, instead its a lot of midlevel jobs are getting automated, but we still don't have a robot that can take out the trash. I am willing to bet my house thay we can automate away the CEO but not the janitor, and it will be hilarious. Management is just analysis of data, we can do that. But the physical works requires de…
Don't we have robots that take out the trash? The garbage trucks pickup the garbage and put it in the truck.
Also, the vacuum now empties itself
Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
> we still don't have a robot that can take out the trash Because it's hard to justify the $$$ on a robot to automate a job that takes 30 seconds once a week. Modern people don't realize it, but an awful lot of household drudgery has been automated. I'm old enough to remember life before the microwave. What a marvelous time saver that is! You can even buy one from the thrift store for $10. I remember them being $1000…
Add to that the cheap-as-dirt popcorn maker. My mom would make popcorn in a frying pan. The machine is sooo much easier. There are the mothers of kitchen automation: 1. refrigerator 2. garbage disposal 3. dishwasher 4. electric / gas stove and oven These are really marvelous inventions. It seems I spent half my childhood washing dishes by hand. Ugh.
> My mom would make popcorn in a frying pan. The machine is sooo much easier.
But perhaps not as much fun, particularly if you forget to put the lid on?
> It seems I spent half my childhood washing dishes by hand. Ugh.
Yes, I remember that when I left home to go to university, the very first thing my parents did was to buy a dishwasher.
Mind you, I don't have one today - kitchen too small, and I don't like bending down to fill/empty it.
Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this level of concentration a totally new phenomenon? In the 1970s GM employed almost 700k people, and the US population like 30% lower. Is it just different companies every generation?
Oh boy, the new quote: "What's good for Amazon, is good for America." When GM was "good for America", we pretty much lost public transportation, so what are we losing now?
> what are we losing now?
Book published without DRM and the death of first sale doctrine?
Try giving away some "used" kindle books.
Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it’s a negative cycle. Those already budget stretched people are getting paid poorly by Amazon, so they too will shop at Amazon. We’re not there yet but the cycle is reminiscent of the factory owners with factory stores and pubs where the workers spend all their money during the industrial revolution. Unions and worker laws stem from that era. So who knows - maybe we’re on the cusp of another revolution that’s si…
There was an article on the front page about how Amazon does this in some places already. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_store
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Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
Management isn't analysis of data, it is making a decision based on that analysis. A completely different and more complex problem. One could argue that the border between the two is unclear but we have for sure been automatizing the analysis and we are nowhere near removing the managers. Maybe we could say we have removed layers of management though
I'm with the bet-the-house guy. I've worked for huge organizations since 1990 and I really think that even a mid-grade student project could make decisions as well as the management I've known, which includes multiple Fortune 50 CEOs. When I say "known" I mean "known" and not "been ten layers under." What I think will happen is CEOs will be glorified actors that are tasked with delivering the decisions some ML system…
ML systems don’t make decisions.
I feel like a lot of comments about what ML will do start with a misunderstanding of what ML actually is.
Saying ML will make a CEO’s decisions is like saying Excel will make CEO’s decisions. Neither is anything more than a system for keeping track of correlations.
Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's 152 other families to work as scabs for each striking worker. I worry all of this won't be resolved until the next State level paradigm shift, like when the world mostly did away with kings and queens for liberalism.
The vast majority of those other workers won’t be flexible enough to be able to just drop and work for Amazon. This is a problem inherent to neoliberalism, you’re right, I’m just not sure I’d agree that it requires a nation state level shift in politics to make Amazon pay their fare share in taxes and wages.
Are there no federal corporate taxes? Or would the US be discluded since it's not a nation state?