This has never been how automation has worked. Automation all the way back to the first factories displacing handmade goods has used automation to increase total output, not to reduce time spent for the same output, and then allowing everyone to work less. It actually increased the workday for most of those jobs, because the automation so drastically reduced the per-item price that it drove down wages in turn.
Amazon wants employees who won’t unionize, who don’t take breaks, and who cost far less, and since they can’t outsource a local distribution warehouse, they’ll use robots instead of exploited foreign workers.
This has never been how automation has worked. Automation all the way back to the first factories displacing handmade goods has used automation to increase total output, not to reduce time spent for the same output, and then allowing everyone to work less. It actually increased the workday for most of those jobs, because the automation so drastically reduced the per-item price that it drove down wages in turn.
Amazon wants employees who won’t unionize, who don’t take breaks, and who cost far less, and since they can’t outsource a local distribution warehouse, they’ll use robots instead of exploited foreign workers.