News thread

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

Unless (and it could be a big one) Bezos has finally decided that he has enough money and is actually applying the trickle down economics scheme we've been hearing about for decades that never really happens. I'm probably dreaming here, but it could be the case.

Wages have not tracked with inflation for a long, long time. Something (or someone) has to give eventually.

$15/hr is only unreasonable because we all know that consumer prices will go up to maintain the bottom line. That is a choice made by the corporations. They don't have to do that, but they do, and it cascades across all corners of the economy. In the end, it's the consumer and small businesses that suffer from that choice.

People like Bezos aren't really philanthropic or they would have never gotten rich in the first place. They would have given more along the way instead of acquiring wealth. I think this was done because he was pressured into walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.

Usually stock holders demand profit increases and balk at profit decreases so Amazon will have no choice, but to raise prices. They are forced by stock holders to raise prices when costs, such as this income boost, increase.

Price increases can be avoided in other ways. In this case it appears that taking bonuses and stock options away from employees is being done to offset this cost increase. There goes that philanthropic theory...

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

Also, automation is going to happen more and more, no matter what the pay scale is.

That's why you gotta be at the top of the food chain for long term viability. People involved with the R&D of automation will always be needed until AI becomes more intelligent than humans. If that ever happens our species will become literal slaves to AI.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

People like Bezos aren't really philanthropic or they would have never gotten rich in the first place. They would have given more along the way instead of acquiring wealth. I think this was done because he was pressured into walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.

You can be philanthropic and wealthy at the same time, it depends on how you play your hand. But generally, your right. Building that kind of wealth depends on a particular mindset that doesn't often include mass sums of charity.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Usually stock holders demand profit increases and balk at profit decreases so Amazon will have no choice, but to raise prices. They are forced by stock holders to raise prices when costs, such as this income boost, increase.

Price increases can be avoided in other ways. In this case it appears that taking bonuses and stock options away from employees is being done to offset this cost increase. There goes that philanthropic theory...

And still the game is rigged for maximum allowable profit, and still not the fault of the wage earner.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

That's why you gotta be at the top of the food chain for long term viability.

Not necessarily. Automation requires a metric shit ton of support, logistics and planning. Non-repetitive or non-uniform procedures, even if they aren't top of the food chain, will most likely be last to go.

AI, as impressive as it currently is, is still pretty dumb. They can be made to do somewhat complex tasks, but only within fairly strict parameters without a lot of variables.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

People involved with the R&D of automation will always be needed until AI becomes more intelligent than humans. If that ever happens our species will become literal slaves to AI.

If that ever happens, AI will have no use for humanity. We would serve no purpose, and slavery would be pointless. It may kill us, it may walk us into a brighter future, or it may leave us alone altogether.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

You can be philanthropic and wealthy at the same time, it depends on how you play your hand. But generally, your right. Building that kind of wealth depends on a particular mindset that doesn't often include mass sums of charity.

I think the modern definition of a philanthropist is one who is charitable after gaining wealth. Unless you are willing to be poor or live very modestly I don't think there's any other way to do it. And often people are charitable for selfish reasons. The giver wants the warm, fuzzy feelings that come along with it.

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

And still the game is rigged for maximum allowable profit, and still not the fault of the wage earner.

I wasn't blaming the workers. I mean I wouldn't turn down a raise out of the blue. I do think a large portion of the public, especially those in support of this wage increase, are too clueless to understand it's going to affect them in the long run if they purchase products from Amazon.

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

Not necessarily. Automation requires a metric shit ton of support, logistics and planning. Non-repetitive or non-uniform procedures, even if they aren't top of the food chain, will most likely be last to go.

AI, as impressive as it currently is, is still pretty dumb. They can be made to do somewhat complex tasks, but only within fairly strict parameters without a lot of variables.

I'd disagree. If you can train a robot to think you certainly can build one to do mundane tasks. But at this point we're theorizing about the very distant future. It's certainly not something we'll have to worry about in our lifetime.

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

If that ever happens, AI will have no use for humanity. We would serve no purpose, and slavery would be pointless. It may kill us, it may walk us into a brighter future, or it may leave us alone altogether.

I don't know. Maybe they'll keep us around as pets or entertainment of some kind.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I think the modern definition of a philanthropist is one who is charitable after gaining wealth. Unless you are willing to be poor or live very modestly I don't think there's any other way to do it.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

And often people are charitable for selfish reasons. The giver wants the warm, fuzzy feelings that come along with it.

All charity is based in selfishness when you get right down to it. That doesn't make it bad or disingenuous, that's just how human nature works.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I wasn't blaming the workers. I mean I wouldn't turn down a raise out of the blue. I do think a large portion of the public, especially those in support of this wage increase, are too clueless to understand it's going to affect them in the long run if they purchase products from Amazon.

It's like telling your sibling to sit down and shut up take what's given to you or dad is going to beat you all. You're attention is not on the fact that dad is an asshole.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I'd disagree. If you can train a robot to think you certainly can build one to do mundane tasks. But at this point we're theorizing about the very distant future. It's certainly not something we'll have to worry about in our lifetime.

It not so much the mundane tasks, it's those without rigid parameters.

There is a new robot that can hang drywall all by itself. It picks the sheet up off of the stack, carries it over, and screws it on. It seems to do a pretty good job in the perfectly arranged scenario it operates in. But what happens when the scenario is less than perfect? How many variables can it encounter before it can no longer do it's task?

We could use my job as an example. It's not rocket science, and on the surface it's not horribly complex. However, there are a shit ton of variables that makes things difficult, sometimes mind numbingly so. There are a lot of human mistakes that are made in the manufacturing process that have to be corrected and navigated through to successfully do much of anything. A fair portion of my work day is spent just fixing mistakes made at the factory.

My job is not at risk until most every step of the process leading up to the demand for my job is automated, perfected, and uniform. Or, it's not at risk until we have AI that can think like people and robotics that can perform like people.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I don't know. Maybe they'll keep us around as pets or entertainment of some kind.

Will they have a robot Bob Barker reminding them to spay and neuter their humans? I bet they will.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Good Guy Bezos gave everyone a raise!

And then...

Bad Guy Bezos shit canned all of the existing performance incentives.

Figures.

[wings_of_fire]

Reality surfaces ..

[Duuuuuuuude]

Maybe I don't understand enough about the hardware end, but surely you don't just pop a chip in a board. Don't you have to engineer for it? At least a little bit? And if the customer does any inspection during production at all, wouldn't they notice the deviation from spec?

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

Maybe I don't understand enough about the hardware end, but surely you don't just pop a chip in a board. Don't you have to engineer for it? At least a little bit? And if the customer does any inspection during production at all, wouldn't they notice the deviation from spec?

I don't understand much at all about hardware, but either this is fear mongering or it's our worst fears realized. I don't think anybody would put it past China to do something like this. It's also not the first time it's been suspected.

https://arstechnica.com/information-...rmware-update/

[skinnyj]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I don't understand much at all about hardware, but either this is fear mongering or it's our worst fears realized. I don't think anybody would put it past China to do something like this. It's also not the first time it's been suspected.

https://arstechnica.com/information-...rmware-update/

Considering it came from RT (Russia Today), you have to take it with a grain of salt. RT has a reputation for being very anti-west slanted and is not above fear-mongering and even running with conspiracy theories.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by skinnyj

Considering it came from RT (Russia Today), you have to take it with a grain of salt. RT has a reputation for being very anti-west slanted and is not above fear-mongering and even running with conspiracy theories.

RT was the root source of this story?

[skinnyj]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

RT was the root source of this story?

I didn't hear them citing anybody else in that segment.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by skinnyj

I didn't hear them citing anybody else in that segment.

I'm confused. Are you talking about my link or the current story? The current story is being reported by multiple sources. It was enough to make Super Micro's stock drop 50% yesterday and Apple's is down slightly as well.

[Shinchu]

I remember a comedian in the 80s making jokes about us buying all these Japanese cars. Then one day the prime minister says ok we have them all in our cars now *presses button activating all door locks* now they cant get out we can just stroll right in and the country is ours!!!

That's kinda how this Chinese cyber attack feels to me.

[svt923]

Mattress Firm filed for bankruptcy and will close up to 700 stores.

https://www.businessinsider.com/matt...ruptcy-2018-10

I don't know about where you live but it feels like there are about 400 Mattress Firms within a 5 mile radius of me. Closing 700 stores doesn't seem like nearly enough.

By our old house, there was a shopping center with a Mattress Firm. An entire new building next to the shopping center was build that became a Mattress Firm, then like 6 months later another new building across the street was built that had another Mattress Firm. There were 3 stores operating in what can't be more than a 1/4 mile radius.

My daughter was 4 at the time says "why did they build another Mattress Firm? There is one right there, that is stupid. They should close 2 of them." She deserves to be made CEO or at least a highly paid consultant.

[skinnyj]

Originally Posted by svt923

Mattress Firm filed for bankruptcy and will close up to 700 stores.

https://www.businessinsider.com/matt...ruptcy-2018-10

I don't know about where you live but it feels like there are about 400 Mattress Firms within a 5 mile radius of me. Closing 700 stores doesn't seem like nearly enough.

By our old house, there was a shopping center with a Mattress Firm. An entire new building next to the shopping center was build that became a Mattress Firm, then like 6 months later another new building across the street was built that had another Mattress Firm. There were 3 stores operating in what can't be more than a 1/4 mile radius.

My daughter was 4 at the time says "why did they build another Mattress Firm? There is one right there, that is stupid. They should close 2 of them." She deserves to be made CEO or at least a highly paid consultant.

I just saw this. I think we have 3 within 5 miles of each other plus one in our mall.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by svt923

Mattress Firm filed for bankruptcy and will close up to 700 stores.

https://www.businessinsider.com/matt...ruptcy-2018-10

I don't know about where you live but it feels like there are about 400 Mattress Firms within a 5 mile radius of me. Closing 700 stores doesn't seem like nearly enough.

By our old house, there was a shopping center with a Mattress Firm. An entire new building next to the shopping center was build that became a Mattress Firm, then like 6 months later another new building across the street was built that had another Mattress Firm. There were 3 stores operating in what can't be more than a 1/4 mile radius.

My daughter was 4 at the time says "why did they build another Mattress Firm? There is one right there, that is stupid. They should close 2 of them." She deserves to be made CEO or at least a highly paid consultant.

I have 0 within a 5 mile radius or even a 10 mile radius, but 7 within a 15 mile radius.

700 stores comes out to over 14 stores per each of the 48 continuous states. That's a lot of stores.

That article mentioned a lawsuit against a former employee and a broke for "conspiring to push the company to aggressively expand." Uh don't you want companies to exand?

[BigSki]

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/j...d-separations/

F-n FCA/Jerp - $35K + for a vehicle that's full of faulty welds on the frame?

[NoobCrawler]

https://thetakeout.com/natural-light...ost-1829598642


Sooooooooo...anyone seen EeePee...

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by BigSki

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/j...d-separations/

F-n FCA/Jerp - $35K + for a vehicle that's full of faulty welds on the frame?

Remind me again why people buy Chrysler vehicles... They've been junk for years before they were bought by Fiat. It's a shame because some of their cars, like the Challenger, are some of the best looking on the road today.

[Mike Flea]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Remind me again why people buy Chrysler vehicles... They've been junk for years before they were bought by Fiat. It's a shame because some of their cars, like the Challenger, are some of the best looking on the road today.

Because we like them