Went to get some laundry services and called the number. I was leery as I am in Toronto area and number was Nova Scotia.
A male sounding person answered and I started posing questions about laundry services they offered. This guy was the politest person I had heard in over a decade. Concise but vague. I thought it was VOIP delay as there was a 3-5 second pause for him to reply but realized that it was too consistent. It was a fucking AI attendant talking at me. I said stick your AI, I will not be using your services and hung up.
Grrrrr me want human.
Have you seen prices drop since companies have laid off all the human help? If human interaction is such a botique concession how did business manage until now and where did their savings go?
Why are prices staying the same (if we’re lucky) or still rising, services are staying the same (if we’re lucky) or getting worse, companies are taking all these cost-saving measures like sweeping layoffs, and yet the biggest companies are generally posting record profits?
I understand you’re probably playing devil’s advocate but devils aren’t entitled to an attorney.
A portion to expensive human salaries. Another portion so naked profit taking on the part of these businesses.
To the salaries angle, look at nations which still have massively large populations with low labor costs. You’ll see that work is done by dozens or hundreds of low paid humans instead of automation. There is a tipping point where it becomes cheaper to invest in automation rather than paying a human. In places like Europe, USA, and Japan we’re way past that tipping point and automation (whether thats robots, computer automation, or AI) becomes the significantly cheaper option to getting something done/manufactured. China is quickly joining our ranks too. While they still have a large population, the cost of labor in China is reaching middle class levels and we’re starting to see the same thing there were automation is replacing human workers.
Because in our economic system a small amount of inflation is necessary. A deflationary status in our economy would actually be devastating. However, when the economy overheats we get significant inflation.
I don’t disagree with this.
I am, but if people are asking these question non-rhetorically, then they actually want to know why these things happen. I’m willing to provide the understanding I’m aware of, most of which isn’t obvious without prior study. Understanding why the current state exists is the starting point for affecting change, if they want change.