[DAB]

we'll always have the poor in society.

but you are on to something. all this "automation" and "high tech" has a cost we don't see.

when i was in HS (early 80s), our shop class took a field trip to the nearby Mack Truck plant. fascinating experience. i remember watching one guy, who's only job, was to take straight tubing and bend it just so, following templates, so it would fit into the engine later. i later thought, he does this everyday, 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. just one task, over and over. i don't want to do that later.

and now we have fancy bending machines that will do that task perfectly, endlessly, and you can change the program anytime you want, and you don't have to pay it, or give it health insurance, or fund its pension. you can even locate that machine in Vietnam, and ship the finished product every month in a Conex box and pay the operator pennies compared to wages in Scranton.

But this is nothing new. the term "sabotage" derived from weavers throwing their sabots into the machines, as they saw their livelihood disappearing with automated weaving looms. that was a long time ago.

guess i'm lucky, but others not so much.

i don't have an answer.