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I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

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Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#81

Post by ekianjo »

pyre wrote: post #74
ekianjo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah, China is doing rather well NOW. How about China, like 20 or even 30 years ago ? It was a poor country, underdeveloped. And you know what changed ? Their economic system. Just that. It was so sudden in China you can easily trace the roots of their economic boom. It supports my argument, rather than yours.

> And you know what changed ? Their economic system. So the thing that we should all aspire to as a species is the venerable Chinese sweatshop? The 'perfect storm' of capitalism, anti-unionism, and corporatism?

You should go in China for once, and talk to Chinese people to better understand their situation. They were miserable in the countryside, and the "sweatshops" you mention are already providing them with a better life than what they had. That's why you will keep seeing those kind of news: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/fox...

By the way, that's where America was like 100 years ago. People need to work hard to get to high standards of living, in case you did not notice.

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#82

Post by click170 »

I've worked at one of the warehouses for an electronics retailer, and I rather enjoyed it.

They didn't outsource to a temp agency, instead they had their own HR department. The starting pay was far above average for similar jobs with other companies and they readjusted for cost of living increases every few years, and the employee discount was wicked.

It's interesting to read about perspectives from employees of other warehouses, it sounds like I had it good.

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#83

Post by pmorici »

"I probably look happier than I should because I have the extreme luxury of not giving a shit about keeping this job."

Great quote there. That's really a key to being happy in any job. Her description of this job doesn't sound all that bad you get exercise and paid above minimum wage plus overtime.

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#84

Post by karambahh »

ericd wrote: post #29
ck2 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re-read that article and tell me you want any human being to have to work like that for more than a week in a supposedly 1st-world country. Those people are subsidizing your low prices by taking 800mg of advil a day to be able to get a paycheck and deferring the health disaster they will have in a few years without insurance. If you do not have unions or government regulation, big business sets the rules and you end…

Read past the first couple of words of my comment and you'll see that I agree that worker protections are important, I'm just saying that unions have historically created a whole host of hard to solve problems and are not a good way to deal with this. No job availability is still generally the worst possible outcome in a country without strong social safety nets like the US, so don't underestimate the importance of c…

There wouldn't be worker protections if unions did not exist.

They pushed for paid holidays, medical leave, safety, etc.

In the european country where I live, unions made all of this possible until the 1970s. Since then, unionization got less and less prevalent and now that the economy is gloomy at best, corporations are lobbying hard to relax worker protections. Unions are nowhere to be seen and workers are left alone to suffer.

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#85

Post by lwat »

jfoutz wrote: post #52
scarmig wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's assume that you would need 1000 machines to have as much throughput as 4000 people. WAG, but I'd wager that each of those machines would cost $500k. That means 100 million in immediate outlays. WAG 2: fuel/electricity/maintenance is $200/month, and you need a team of 20 engineers to watch over them at $10k/engineer/month. So recurring costs come to $400k. Which brings us to: 100M/1.3M = 77 months, or between 6…

Labor costs are likely double, if not more, than what i've estimated. overtime + insurance + drug testing + security + all the other crap i'm forgetting.

Still, most companies just do not have a $100 million to change to a robotic system.

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#86

Post by JVirissimo »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #63
mgkimsal wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well... it costs them something more than it cost to have it the way it is now, and since they don't have to pay for the effect on the workers working in the non-ergonomic warehouse, what's the point? If they had to pay for the health/welfare of their workers directly, they'd have an incentive to ergonimicize the place.

If they had to pay for the health/welfare of their workers directly... You mean if they had to pay some sort of compensation for work related injuries? Too bad only 50 US states have workers comp laws.

Even if there were no workers comp laws, there would still be workers comp. Why? Because employees demand it and will work for a lower nominal wage in order to get it. Even 17th century pirates had workers comp.

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#87

Post by Game_Ender »

sokoloff wrote: post #80
JohnsonB wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/09/smallbusiness/kiva_robots/in... says that 1000 robots costs $15-20 million, not the $500 million that 500k a piece would run. Also what is there to indicate such a hefty need for engineering oversight? 20 engineers constantly overseeing the machines sounds like they are either constantly breaking down, or need a significant amount of custom programming per unit as upkeep,…

1000 robots needing just 30 minutes of preventative maintenance per week is 500 hours of PM a week. That sounds like about the amount of PM a staff of 20 engineers can supply, once you account for admin, PTO, training, travel between robots, and doing the actual work. Engineer does not solely mean "one who creates software".

The word you are looking for is "technician".

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#88

Post by [deleted] »

tkahn6 wrote: post #78
kijin wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Machines have been replacing jobs for over 200 years now, but I don't think there's been a huge increase in unemployment over that period. We've always managed to invent more meaningless and repetitious tasks for ourselves to do. One might say that most office jobs nowadays are like that, too. Factories replaced farms, cubicles replaced factories. But usually this happened over generations, so people had a chance to…

I think the main difference is that computers are a lot cheaper than they were 200 years ago.

[deleted]

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#89

Post by cornell532 »

pyre wrote: post #74
ekianjo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah, China is doing rather well NOW. How about China, like 20 or even 30 years ago ? It was a poor country, underdeveloped. And you know what changed ? Their economic system. Just that. It was so sudden in China you can easily trace the roots of their economic boom. It supports my argument, rather than yours.

> And you know what changed ? Their economic system. So the thing that we should all aspire to as a species is the venerable Chinese sweatshop? The 'perfect storm' of capitalism, anti-unionism, and corporatism?

This is an idiotic argument that ignores/sidesteps the main point of the parent.

No matter what you think of China's economy, it is leaps and bounds better than what it was 20 years ago and provides a dramatically superior quality of life for its citizens.

Re: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: Inside the online-shopping shipping machine

#90

Post by cornell532 »

ekianjo wrote: post #81
pyre wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And you know what changed ? Their economic system. So the thing that we should all aspire to as a species is the venerable Chinese sweatshop? The 'perfect storm' of capitalism, anti-unionism, and corporatism?

You should go in China for once, and talk to Chinese people to better understand their situation. They were miserable in the countryside, and the "sweatshops" you mention are already providing them with a better life than what they had. That's why you will keep seeing those kind of news: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/fox... By the way, that's where America was like 100 years ago. People nee…

Brilliant response.

Economic ignorance encountered here can be stupefying.

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