General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Stopped in a local McDonalds today for coffee, an employee was miffed I didn't use their new kiosk [View all]meadowlander
(4,395 posts)and doesn't really care that her job will be replaced by a machine.
It's not like it's exactly a soul stimulating vocation.
I used to live in China when they had zero unemployment. They achieved it by inventing pointless jobs for people. You could go to any park in the city and see people on their hands and knees cutting the grass with scissors instead of using a lawnmower.
We can respond to increased automation by embracing it and then applying any efficiencies to bettering people's lives, letting them find more meaningful and interesting work for themselves and still providing a safety net/basic income or we can cling to pointless, inefficient, soul-crushing work just so we can feel smug about not giving any money away for free to people who haven't "earned" it..