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I expect that the Gods of the Balance Sheet will put paid to two man teams even in your area at some point. I don't doubt that companies like Waste Management switch over the minute that they can save a nickel.
I'm not so vain as to think that I can see very far into the future. I can however quite easily see that the real world where I am is very different from what you have seen in your tea leaves.
The displacement of workers by automation has been a steady long-term trend.
Productivity increases --
1. The same levels of output can be achieved by a smaller number of workers.
2. Higher levels of output can be achieved by the same number of workers.
3. Even higher levels of output than that can be achieved by a greater number of workers.
Many people manage to draw irrational inferences from these sorts of things.
Roomba World may yet be a ways off. Here in one of the wealthiest and most educated counties in the country, it's still 2-man crews and big noisy trucks that do all the waste, debris, and recycling collections. Multiple generations of canaries all seem to be doing just fine in these parts.
Well, in MY county, definitely NOT one of the wealthiest and most educated counties in the country, the last city NOT using standardized cans and automation has switched over, and exclusively uses one-person trucks where the driver has zero need to leave the vehicle on his route. If the waste is not in the provided can, it is simply not picked up.
BUT to make matters worse our federal government has already modified the meaning of unemployed to not include those who haven't found a job in X number of months.
There has not been a change. The unemployed are -- as they long have been -- those who do not have a job but would like one, are in fact available to work right away, and have made an active effort to find a job over the past four weeks.
Active efforts are more or less those that involve a second party. Having a beer while reading the want-ads does not count. Asking your cousin if anything is open at the filling station over in Mt. Pilot does count.
These definitions along with the methodologies used in tabulating the employment situation each month are among the many things easily found on the BLS website.
Well, in MY county, definitely NOT one of the wealthiest and most educated counties in the country, the last city NOT using standardized cans and automation has switched over, and exclusively uses one-person trucks where the driver has zero need to leave the vehicle on his route. If the waste is not in the provided can, it is simply not picked up.
You suggest that the difference between first-class and second-class refuse collection services may lie in differing income and education levels among the clientele being served. The difference between Red Lobster and fine-dining establishments may be presented in the same way. Is fine-dining as a restaurant option also somehow doomed? How far do these notions actually go?
You suggest that the difference between first-class and second-class refuse collection services may lie in differing income and education levels among the clientele being served. The difference between Red Lobster and fine-dining establishments may be presented in the same way. Is fine-dining as a restaurant option also somehow doomed? How far do these notions actually go?
Thank you so much for the insights into your thought process, my modern day Marie Antoinette.
Your distinction between 'first-class' and 'second-class' refuse collection tells a lot about your mindset. In no way did I intimate that either way was better or worse. The difference is in efficiency.
Just because your neighborhood Ruth's Chris Steakhouse still employs someone to brush the crumbs off of your table as you eat in no way indicates that so goes the country as a whole, or even a sizable minority.
Luckily enough for you, special accommodations for the wealthy, at least where such are concentrated, show no sign of lessening.
But just in case, you may want to mind your head lest it's attachment to your body become more... tenuous.
Don't make it complicated ... you can see them everyday if you look.
In the US they add up well into the tens of Millions of adult working age people.
Most are the offspring of those who also never had any useful skills...
most of the rest are the offspring of those who had some sort of useful skill no longer needed.
The common theme though is they have chosen to not prepare themselves to be able toadapt.
Their continuing presence, physically and economically, distorts employment statistics and
depresses the wage rates that can be justified to be paid to the small portion of them for
whom there are still no & low skill jobs available.
Their continuing presence, physically and economically, also distorts real estate values by
propping up demand for space that too often has almost none of the costs paid for by the tenants.
---
There are surplus people at the higher skill levels as well but thats a different thread.
Thank you so much for the insights into your thought process, my modern day Marie Antoinette. Your distinction between 'first-class' and 'second-class' refuse collection tells a lot about your mindset. In no way did I intimate that either way was better or worse. The difference is in efficiency.
It was you who rather pointedly drew the distinction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rugrats2001
Just because your neighborhood Ruth's Chris Steakhouse still employs someone to brush the crumbs off of your table as you eat in no way indicates that so goes the country as a whole, or even a sizable minority.
Ruth's Chris is now a national and international chain with more than 100 locations scattered across the United States. And of course even finer dining than that is to be found all over the place. I still doubt that the rabble will be targeting such locations soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rugrats2001
Luckily enough for you, special accommodations for the wealthy, at least where such are concentrated, show no sign of lessening.
So more upscale neighborhoods will in the future be exempted from any and all loopy prognostication?
Quote:
Originally Posted by rugrats2001
But just in case, you may want to mind your head lest it's attachment to your body become more... tenuous.
Quake, quake, quake! How will we ever quell the Playpen Rebellion?
There are surplus people at the higher skill levels as well but thats a different thread.
We might need a separate thread for the whole concept of "surplus people." Certainly many there would be apt to see your metrics of it as a form of anti-social atrocity.
Don't make it complicated ... you can see them everyday if you look.
In the US they add up well into the tens of Millions of adult working age people.
Most are the offspring of those who also never had any useful skills...
most of the rest are the offspring of those who had some sort of useful skill no longer needed.
The common theme though is they have chosen to not prepare themselves to be able toadapt.
Their continuing presence, physically and economically, distorts employment statistics and
depresses the wage rates that can be justified to be paid to the small portion of them for
whom there are still no & low skill jobs available.
Their continuing presence, physically and economically, also distorts real estate values by
propping up demand for space that too often has almost none of the costs paid for by the tenants.
---
There are surplus people at the higher skill levels as well but thats a different thread.
And your preferred solution to the current surplus is...?
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