>Back when elevators required an attendant, there weren't that many elevators compared with today. I'm talking about displacing large existing workforces.
Sounds a lot like status quo bias. If you think truck drivers are worth keeping around as long as a jobs program, you should be in favor of introducing elevator attendants as one as well.
>Also, people wouldn't spend their lives standing in an elevator; whereas millions of people do make a career out of truck driving or working at a port, both of which require skills developed over time.
Does this matter? Whether it's elevator attendants, truck drivers, or even programmers, if they're out of a job because it's been automated, the impact is the same: a bunch of people who need job retraining. How much effort they put into their previous career is largely irrelevant.
> That's assuming the price of espressos and goods would drop; I don't think that's likely.
Globalization brought us cheap chinese shit from aliexpress, didn't it?
Sounds a lot like status quo bias. If you think truck drivers are worth keeping around as long as a jobs program, you should be in favor of introducing elevator attendants as one as well.
>Also, people wouldn't spend their lives standing in an elevator; whereas millions of people do make a career out of truck driving or working at a port, both of which require skills developed over time.
Does this matter? Whether it's elevator attendants, truck drivers, or even programmers, if they're out of a job because it's been automated, the impact is the same: a bunch of people who need job retraining. How much effort they put into their previous career is largely irrelevant.
> That's assuming the price of espressos and goods would drop; I don't think that's likely.
Globalization brought us cheap chinese shit from aliexpress, didn't it?