Saw something someone wrote about cashiers at a store being tracked by management to see how many people they ring up to determine how many hours they’ll give to workers on the schedule. This person wrote that this is what happens when menial workers demand 15 dollars an hour. They price themselves out of the market. Employers just use self checkouts or AI devices instead.
This is true, but what does that say about us as a society? As a species? We know that no one can survive on the federal minimum wage. These people work 40 hours just like everyone else. When we use technology instead of hiring people, we send the message that some people aren’t worth housing and cars and medical care. Some people don’t get to have those things.
The reason so many don’t see a problem with this is because there is an underlying assumption that all menial laborers are capable of being doctors and engineers, and were just too lazy to put in the work. We justify it to ourselves that way. But the truth is there are many people who simply don’t have the capacity to do anything beyond unskilled labor. They might be good people trying their best to get by, but they aren’t Teslas or Franklins. They might have many talents, but book smarts just isn’t their forte.
Not everyone is capable of college. The common answer given is that these people should have gotten a trade. But most trades take a lot of skill and intelligence. Not everyone is capable. And if everyone did enter the trades as advised, it would crush wages.
Manufacturing used to be the answer to this. Factory jobs offered honest work for decent pay and healthcare. But we allowed the richest and most foul among us to send American jobs to China. There should be bodies swinging from trees for that. But there aren’t. We allowed this parasitic filth to infiltrate Congress and buy favors. Any American business owner who sends his factory work to China ought to lose his citizenship and right to do business in the US. That’s if we decide to go lightly on them. Personally I see people who send American jobs overseas to save money on labor as traitors to America. And we all know what the punishment is for treachery.
But I digress. The point is that by saying demanding a living wage prices human beings out of the labor pool, we are saying that some people don’t deserve dignity and decency. They don’t deserve to go to the doctor when they’re sick. They don’t deserve a roof that doesn’t leak. Section 8 housing is a fine life for them, and struggle is all they have to look forward to until they collapse and die.
I don’t have an easy solution. In some cases, making technology that replaces too many workers could be made illegal. Fine businesses that do it to the point they could have saved money if they had been willing to hire people to begin with. But this is not a perfect plan. (Artificial) Life finds a way. Technology will evolve one way or another. But what is our plan for taking care of the huge pocket of humanity about to be made redundant?
Life at Home 