hrothgar, on 2024-October-08, 10:43, said:
Over the past week or so, I've seen a bunch of discussions around what would be necessary to replace longshoremen with automated systems...
From what I have seen, this really isn't practical.
It is absolutely possible to build ports that are much more automated / require many fewer laborers, however, this isn't the sort of thing that can be retrofitted. At least not easily. All of the ports that folks are seeing that are fully automated represent new construction over in China.
So, I suspect that most of this talk about "automation" is a distraction
You're talking short term practice.
I'm talking about a long term trend, a trend that has taken routine labor out of the center of our society to something that everyone sees will be mostly gone in a couple generations. It's not about being able to afford rent and groceries - it's about going from feeling like they were an important contributor to the country to feeling like they are some largely irrelevant sideshow getting the scraps that are left over from all the stuff the smarties are managing to do. Take the longshoremen - whether or not their jobs are actually replaced with machines, they're going from being a vital part of getting stuff to their neighbors to people who aren't actually needed (because a robot could do the job) but still have a job only because either the union negotiated it for them or because the company finds them cheaper than the robot. How humiliating does that feel?
Trump being an idiot is actually an asset to him. His supporters don't want a smart President, because they don't think a smart President understands how to make the country work for dumb people. They're tired of the country being run by smart people.
(And I want to emphasize this is not about education but rather about the ability to figure stuff out on the fly, manage a significant amount of information, and learn on the job. It's the difference between the Macdonalds employee who can just manage the fry cooker and the one who can juggle and concurrently manage four different orders going through the drive-through line.)