• jtrek
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    14 hours ago

    I want more people to think though

    “If this tool makes me produce double, and I get paid the same, who’s keeping all that new value?”

    • Xerxos@lemmy.ml
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      8 hours ago

      If your productivity doubles, they will lay off half the people, and all gains disappear upwards. It’s already happening.

    • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Maintenance workers, the engineers who designed the machine, everyone above who keeps it running.

      Plants get shut down yearly for maintenance, stuff need to be lubed, replaced, upgraded etc.

      Those contractors are gonna be making 3x what you do. Sure they’re keeping some extra profit, but their expenses also go up proportionally too. Millwrites here make over $50 an hour, the company charges out at $100+ per man hour. Maintenance is friggen expensive on machines.

      All you need is 2-4 weeks off a year, and they save money while you’re off. Machines always cost money.

      • jtrek
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        8 hours ago

        If that was true, if it was a wash to get the new tool for the owner, they wouldn’t do it. That’d be silly.

        Upgrading someone from pen and paper to a laptop with LibreOffice is probably going to dramatically (let’s say 4x) increase their productivity, without a corresponding 4x increase in maintenance cost.

        • MrFinnbean@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          You know companies have whole branches deticated to computer support and cyper security, right?

          Or do you think that before laptops businesses had their own divisions of Quill-Certified Problem Solvers and Paper-Based Troubleshooting Engineers?

          • jtrek
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            8 hours ago

            And you think that costs more than the productivity gains from having the computer?

            • MrFinnbean@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              No. I think the computer industry is more expensive and creates more jobs than all the paper and pen industries have trough the history.

              • jtrek
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                7 hours ago

                What does that have to do with the ownership class extracting value from labor?

                • MrFinnbean@lemmy.world
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                  7 hours ago

                  Hmm. What could industry producing millions of jobs world wide offer for working class. What a tough nut. You got me stumped. Maybe we should have just stayed using pen and paper.

                  • jtrek
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                    6 hours ago

                    You’re missing the point, so yes you do seem stumped.

        • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          Which is likely less than your full time rate, or it’s accounted for in total yearly “salary”. You’re paying for it somehow, even if it’s making a dollar less instead.

          And think more the lowly workers, the ones that only get 2 weeks, and that’s because they’re forced to by laws.

            • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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              12 hours ago

              They have their own issues, as described in my story in another comment.

              They made a company waste millions of dollars replacing a job, than forced them to remove the machine and reinstate the worker.

              They create problems where they are none, than celebrate when they win.

              You are also fooling yourself if you don’t think you’re not paying for that time off another way. Most people would rather have the higher hourly rate.

              • Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz
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                7 hours ago

                I like the time off. I like having the ability to plan a trip every year (near or far), and not having to worry about how my bills are going to get paid.

                Much better for my mental health than to work those weeks and not have anything to look forward to.

      • HubertManne@piefed.social
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        11 hours ago

        the contractor getting over double is a bad deal for the worker unless they are providing significant infrastructure like complex expensive tools and vehicles and such.