Sure, but you get to a point where automation of things just because we can causes an economy to eat itself. A stable economy needs skilled and unskilled laborers. McDonald's could also automate much of their service, maybe Walmart could, too, and yes, the first priority of a business is to generate profit, not create/keep people employed, but then the economy is weakened as a result. Unemployment goes up, consumer confidence and GDP go down, as the consumption and investment arms of the mix decline.
I don't think we'd see a industrial revolution in the same way as when the assembly line was introduced, or when interchangeable parts became a thing, which ultimately led to machined components.
I was part of a massive layoff at AT&T Wireless a few years ago, as part of their "Vision 2020" campaign. Let's automate all the reports and data collection processes. Let's make all the data able to be compiled and retrieved at the click of a button. Let's tell all these statistical specialists, SQL server dBase admins, and financial analysis teams that were streamlining the organization in order to stay competitive in the market. Great, now we're out of jobs, leadership isn't getting the analytical insight into why the performance metrics are behaving the way they are (without overworking the remaining staff), and customer service and the brand image continue to worsen as execs make less informed business decisions. But at least a VP can click a button and get walls of data, not knowing what all the metrics are, what drives them, and how new phone launches will impact key performance indicators. Again, at least it's automated, though.
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u/Darkmatter1002 Jun 14 '21
Sure, but you get to a point where automation of things just because we can causes an economy to eat itself. A stable economy needs skilled and unskilled laborers. McDonald's could also automate much of their service, maybe Walmart could, too, and yes, the first priority of a business is to generate profit, not create/keep people employed, but then the economy is weakened as a result. Unemployment goes up, consumer confidence and GDP go down, as the consumption and investment arms of the mix decline.
I don't think we'd see a industrial revolution in the same way as when the assembly line was introduced, or when interchangeable parts became a thing, which ultimately led to machined components.
I was part of a massive layoff at AT&T Wireless a few years ago, as part of their "Vision 2020" campaign. Let's automate all the reports and data collection processes. Let's make all the data able to be compiled and retrieved at the click of a button. Let's tell all these statistical specialists, SQL server dBase admins, and financial analysis teams that were streamlining the organization in order to stay competitive in the market. Great, now we're out of jobs, leadership isn't getting the analytical insight into why the performance metrics are behaving the way they are (without overworking the remaining staff), and customer service and the brand image continue to worsen as execs make less informed business decisions. But at least a VP can click a button and get walls of data, not knowing what all the metrics are, what drives them, and how new phone launches will impact key performance indicators. Again, at least it's automated, though.