Ron, regarding your post pointing to htservices, I can definitely see the issue regarding automating people out of a job. I definitely have a problem with it!
After all, if we were to automate everyone out of a job... who would be able to buy the products that we produce? Unless of course, we have driven the cost of production close to zero and the consumer cost was really tied to product production cost.
There is a serious flaw in this relationship! The flaw, of course, is greed!
I've said it before, and I will stand by it... for any company to break-even is for that company to, at the very least, maintain! That is, not going broke!
Of course, you have your competitors that are driving you to work harder for a bigger share of the market-place. But then, that is the very essence of Capitalism! The Producers are supposed to fight for the Consumers! AND YET, at the same time, those workers involved in producing MUST have the ability to participate in the Producing/Buying process!
Since the workers (buyers) have very little, if any, control of the current monetary situation, it is entirely up to those that do do have control (those that have) to act reasonably in terms of those that do not have. That is, they, those that have, need to control their damned greed so that ALL of the others, workers/buyers, can continue playing the game!
If that relationship is not properly maintained, then we can't help but fall into what was called serfdom, or, into what many of you can recognize in a more contemporary sense, slavery.
Before long, we, the enslavers, through automating those others out of their jobs, will soon be enslaved!
My philosophy is to give the operators and operator-supporters a break. They don't need to break their backs just to feed their kids! That mentality is nothing more than OLD-SCHOOL GREED!
I tell my operators that the very last thing I want to do is put them out of a job! I tell them that I only want to increase their sleeping time! That, of course, is nothing more than a metaphor indicating that I want to increase the available time that they need to perform their other assigned tasks!
Of course, when it comes to live or die, one tends to choose live.
But then... when and why does it even have to come to that point?
American Indians, of which I am proud to include myself, have always recognized the "Circle-of-Life". We ALL need to work together to make this thing called Life work! FOR ALL OF US!
So... yeah... I can appreciate the objection that was raised with htservices. They apparently don't care about US in general. They only care about themselves, assumming that the ramifications of their actions will be manifested only after they are long gone... after having benefited from their greed.
Damn, this being a caring human-being thing, regarding this particular species, among others, is really tough!
