This guy (the real one, not the satirical Maurer version, though it’s somewhat hard to tell the difference) is such an obvious villain out of mob boss central casting, complete with racketeering indictments, that you could almost believe he’s some sort of WTO/Amazon plant designed to cripple the union and generate public support for a massive infrastructure bill to turn every port into an unmanned fully robotic operation out of a Jeff Bezos wet dream. Hell I’d throw some bucks at that cause right now if it would wipe the smug smile off that Tony Soprano looking motherfucker and make him sell his multimillion dollar house.
Do they realize their absurd demands will generate zero sympathy? Do they even care (it kind of seems like they don’t, they just expect they have leverage - the pain is the point)? Because I don’t think “we’re making your lives expensive and miserable so we can continue to make more money than you in jobs that literally should not exist” is going to play all that well in middle America.
This really sounds like I'm playing Victoria 3 (a strategy game about the industrial revolution). I reject the use of "modern" inventions like trains because I want the country to be filled with low-pay laborers who will eventually join the Trade Unions. Water-tube boilers and assembly lines are the tools of the Clergy and the Landowners! Manufactured goods should be assembled by hand in gigantic blocks of unpowered factories, only then can real progress be achieved!
Since I subscribed, I'm seeing a button that says "Upgrade to Foundling." Does this mean that for extra money you'll teach me The Way of the Mandalore?
What? WHAT is The Way? Everyone keeps saying “THIS is The Way.,” but I need the referent of THIS”! Are you holding something I can’t see? Pointing somewhere? Is THIS an acronym? Tiny Holes In Space? (Probably not; that would be “THIS are the way.”) Touring Hawaii In Socks? Take Highway 1 South?
How exploitable are these automated systems? Apple, Microsoft and Google products can and have been hacked. I imagine whatever information security protocol used for port automation would be less sophisticated than big tech. Think of what a disaster it would be if a hostile foreign power could take down US ports after we have become reliant on automation.
Except that sarcasm is never an argument regardless of the point you’re trying to make. It says, “I cannot articulate my point (if I even have one) so I will just mock the other side.” It says, “I don’t actually understand what’s going on here so I’ll take a snippet and riff on that as if it’s the whole story.”
I’m no fan of the Longshoremen but automation isn’t just about the guy standing holding a sign. This strike is about the possibility of eliminating EVERY SINGLE JOB on the port. In which case it really doesn’t matter what wage is paid for a job that doesn’t exist. The dock cranes can be automated. The dray can be automated. The stacking cranes, the rail and truck loading cranes, all of it can be automated. The paperwork can be automated. The gate operations can be automated. The port can be completely run by machines.
So if your argument is that it’s a good thing when every job (and one day your job) is automated to maximize the owner’s profit and we are left with no options for income, then I am not in agreement. Because we’re not in existence to make company owners rich. We’re here to live our lives and that requires we have the means to feed and house ourselves and our families. And that, currently, requires we have jobs. But because of what AI and automation are and will soon be capable of, having any job at all is very much at risk.
What good is efficiency if none of us has a job anymore and no income? Since I don’t see you suggesting the Longshoremen get Universal Basic Income I guess you’re on the side of seeing them unemployed so we can have cheaper goods by a couple of pennies.
So yes, I think there is a very good argument to made for keeping work manual if that’s what’s required to keep work in existence.
Two words: Robot scabs
This guy (the real one, not the satirical Maurer version, though it’s somewhat hard to tell the difference) is such an obvious villain out of mob boss central casting, complete with racketeering indictments, that you could almost believe he’s some sort of WTO/Amazon plant designed to cripple the union and generate public support for a massive infrastructure bill to turn every port into an unmanned fully robotic operation out of a Jeff Bezos wet dream. Hell I’d throw some bucks at that cause right now if it would wipe the smug smile off that Tony Soprano looking motherfucker and make him sell his multimillion dollar house.
Do they realize their absurd demands will generate zero sympathy? Do they even care (it kind of seems like they don’t, they just expect they have leverage - the pain is the point)? Because I don’t think “we’re making your lives expensive and miserable so we can continue to make more money than you in jobs that literally should not exist” is going to play all that well in middle America.
The President appears to be on their side.
Awkward but true.
This really sounds like I'm playing Victoria 3 (a strategy game about the industrial revolution). I reject the use of "modern" inventions like trains because I want the country to be filled with low-pay laborers who will eventually join the Trade Unions. Water-tube boilers and assembly lines are the tools of the Clergy and the Landowners! Manufactured goods should be assembled by hand in gigantic blocks of unpowered factories, only then can real progress be achieved!
Since I subscribed, I'm seeing a button that says "Upgrade to Foundling." Does this mean that for extra money you'll teach me The Way of the Mandalore?
This is the way.
This Helmet Is Sweaty?
They never seem to take off their helmets, so I bet that's it.
What? WHAT is The Way? Everyone keeps saying “THIS is The Way.,” but I need the referent of THIS”! Are you holding something I can’t see? Pointing somewhere? Is THIS an acronym? Tiny Holes In Space? (Probably not; that would be “THIS are the way.”) Touring Hawaii In Socks? Take Highway 1 South?
Tarkin Has Indigestion Sometimes?
I was wondering why corn cob pipe sales went down.....
Damn! Nail meet hammer.
Too funny - I have to share.
Tin foil hat thought:
How exploitable are these automated systems? Apple, Microsoft and Google products can and have been hacked. I imagine whatever information security protocol used for port automation would be less sophisticated than big tech. Think of what a disaster it would be if a hostile foreign power could take down US ports after we have become reliant on automation.
You know management will fund the just approved raises by cutting corners on security because "nothing ever happens."
Man, my list of "assholes who need to just go ahead and die already" just keeps getting longer....
So tomorrow's post will be about the settlement?
A writer's job's a tough gig when news breaks after you post
Wasn’t that fun.
Except that sarcasm is never an argument regardless of the point you’re trying to make. It says, “I cannot articulate my point (if I even have one) so I will just mock the other side.” It says, “I don’t actually understand what’s going on here so I’ll take a snippet and riff on that as if it’s the whole story.”
I’m no fan of the Longshoremen but automation isn’t just about the guy standing holding a sign. This strike is about the possibility of eliminating EVERY SINGLE JOB on the port. In which case it really doesn’t matter what wage is paid for a job that doesn’t exist. The dock cranes can be automated. The dray can be automated. The stacking cranes, the rail and truck loading cranes, all of it can be automated. The paperwork can be automated. The gate operations can be automated. The port can be completely run by machines.
So if your argument is that it’s a good thing when every job (and one day your job) is automated to maximize the owner’s profit and we are left with no options for income, then I am not in agreement. Because we’re not in existence to make company owners rich. We’re here to live our lives and that requires we have the means to feed and house ourselves and our families. And that, currently, requires we have jobs. But because of what AI and automation are and will soon be capable of, having any job at all is very much at risk.
What good is efficiency if none of us has a job anymore and no income? Since I don’t see you suggesting the Longshoremen get Universal Basic Income I guess you’re on the side of seeing them unemployed so we can have cheaper goods by a couple of pennies.
So yes, I think there is a very good argument to made for keeping work manual if that’s what’s required to keep work in existence.
Grok no like technology. Grok like kill food with hands. No stick. Stick take Grok job.