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Originally Posted by MrVisible
The more we automate, the less people we need.
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Remember all the movies from the 1950-1980s that depicted a relaxed society thanks to atuomation? While we no longer depict robots doing our work, we still have those lofty, false dreams. Ever see the IBM/HP commercials where they show the system admin relaxing at his desk, content that he has no work to do because his attention is no longer needed? His job is easy and he can thank technology!
They don't show the part where they fire the other shifts of admins that were once needed to fix problems, slap a pager on the day guy's belt, and tell him he can't take vacations "very far from town", anymore, "just in case he's needed". With intelligent hardware and software, they only need one guy, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
A recent Xerox commercial goes something like this:
"How can we save money?"
"What about all this? All these reports, all this paper? How much money did this take? It probably took a dozen of people and thousands of dollars."
The head guy smiles as they realize they can buy an intelligent office document management system and get rid of the paper waste. I always saw a bit of cruelty in the smile, knowing that they're happy that they get to save a buck by laying off those 12 people.
Eh, I'm not arguing how they do it, I just find it really ironic that automation was supposed to free humans from work when, instead, it drives many into the poor house.