I grew up in a poor Irish neighborhood in Queens with Harold, he was a friend of mine and a standup guy. As a New Yorker you learn to deal with the cards that are dealt to you.
Now I know there are many people on this site who hate unions, but what these people don’t realizes is that unions not only help their members, but also help nonunion members. When a union worker gets a raise, the non-union shop also gives a raise to their workers, either to keep the union out or to retain their workers. I represented my union for the last 5 years of my career and our union had a 3-year apprenticeship that was a must before you could take a job on your own. This was not only to make sure you were proficient but ensured the safety with people you were dealing with.
Automation is unstoppable and there is a good side and a not so good side. The goal of automation is to replace people and the very people who are champions of automations might find themselves unemployed one day. For those who are retired you are not spared, you see the smaller the workforce the less contributions into social security, inevitably forcing a reduction in benefits. I don’t have a solution, but someone better come up with one soon, AI is knocking at the door.
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