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Thousands Show Up For Jobs at Amazon Warehouses in US Cities (apnews.com)
Thousands of people showed up Wednesday for a chance to pack and ship products to Amazon customers, as the e-commerce company held a giant job fair at nearly a dozen U.S. warehouses. From a report on Associated Press: Although the wages offered will make it hard for some to make ends meet, many of the candidates were excited by the prospect of health insurance and other benefits, as well as advancement opportunities. It's common for Amazon to ramp up its shipping center staff in August to prepare for holiday shopping. But the magnitude of its current hiring spree underscores Amazon's growth when traditional retailers are closing stores -- and blaming Amazon for a shift to buying goods online. Amazon said it received "a record-breaking 20,000 applications" and hired thousands of people on the spot, and will hire more in the coming days. That number represented fewer than half of the 50,000 people it had said it planned to hire.
Why would people care about this? Trump told me that young people are only paying about $12/year. What's the big deal?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
They'll be gone soon anyway.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Death or working at Amazon. Which is the sweeter path?
that's hiring with similar wage/benefits
Stocks at a all time high and unemployment rates rampant. This people are staying in line for hours for a chance to get a $11.50 job while people in Silicon Valley are complaining about making it on $150k. This is a powder keg and I fear someone worse than Trump could very well be the next President.
Although this is good news for people looking for work in the cities, Amazon is also closing warehouses in rural communities that are turning into the new inner cities that are lacking in jobs.
Starting in the late 1990s, Amazon.com Inc. began opening fulfillment centers in sparsely populated states to help customers avoid sales taxes. One of those centers, established in 1999, brought hundreds of jobs to Coffeyville, Kan. -- population 9,500. Yet as two-day shipping became a priority, Amazon shifted its warehousing strategy to be closer to cities where its customers were concentrated, and shut the Coffeyville center in 2015.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/05/26/rural-america-is-new-inner-city-2.html
This kind of reminds me of longshoremen having to turn up at the docks every morning and stand on the stones just for a chance to get picked to work that day, with no guarantee that you would be working tomorrow. At least Amazon is providing health benefits, but I've heard horror stories about working for them, both in the warehouses and in technology positions.
In my opinion, scenes like this are going to be more prevalent in the future as more stable work gets offshored or eliminated entirely due to automation. I've said this before, but working in big company IT you see positions all the time that could easily be dumped the second some MBA with a spreadsheet gets around to it. This has been the way of the world for decades though -- big companies were big enough and made enough money to afford to have a little slack in the system and still return profits to shareholders. With the push to put everyone through college instead of training them right out of high school, you have a lot of random business grads who may not have gotten good grades or learned much between all the partying. Big companies still hire a ton of these entry level graduates to do some random task. These graduates get/got a decent salary, stable work, and were able to build their lives around the fact that they would have income. As they settle down, new grads get promotions, buy houses, have children, pay taxes, and consume at increasing levels as their salaries increase. Because of this, the consumer cycle continues on -- companies produce goods that customers can afford to buy because they have jobs because companies can produce goods...
Scenes like this are what make me think this cycle is breaking down. If you squeeze so much that an operation is 100% efficient and you have no more need for the vast majority of employees, then you cut out the ability for those former employees to participate in the economy. Forgoing a new grad hire at the help desk or support team for $40K because Tata will give you a "replacement" for $10K in India means that that new grad is going to have limited options and may end up in line at the Amazon warehouse for just over minimum wage. I don't know how to solve it -- people propose a universal basic income, and i think that's the best answer, but the people who happen to be on the positive side of this shift will never go for it. You would have to have massive unemployment, 50% or more, just to register that there's a problem in most people's minds, and I think that will lead to a pretty big upheaval in the not too distant future.
Does that mean we should give people make-work? I think so, unless anyone has a plan for breaking society's dependence on getting an education, going to work, consuming, saving for retirement, and spending down your savings at the end of your life.
Just don't bother to apply if you're white. Everyone I know who works at my local Amazon center is black and has a bunch of black friends working there too (who also only hire other blacks). So apparently, Amazon don't like hiring them crackers. Probably helps them pad out their numbers so they can clam "diversity" and hope everyone ignores their all-white management.
For those of us who were lucky enough to come from a middle class background where we lived in a household were dad went to work and mom stayed home and he supported a family of 5 and a house and two cars, we need to lower our expectations.
Those days are gone forever. The American dream of doing better than your parents is dead Fred.
They didn't have to compete with third world labor. Automation only affected factory workers and even then, things were growing fast enough that folks could move to other work and not see their standard of living get destroyed. One in ten people went to college so when you graduated in anything, there were plenty of jobs.
$55K in SV? And being able to afford to live there? There's more to your story - if true - than you're letting on.
$55K salary and millions in equity? Or $55K in salary and just getting ripped off? Or $55K draw from your startup that has $10million in funding? Or living in your parents basement?
For me to keep my lifestyle and move out there, I'd need ten times that $550K. No thanks, I like it here where I am. And I can flush the toilet after pissing.
"Just don't bother to apply if you're white."
Really? Both of my white neighbors work at Amazon.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Seriously?
If we are ever going to beat this racism thing, we've simply got to start ignoring people's race, both legally AND in practical day to day business matters. This applies to ALL sides of the question including discrimination AND affirmative action laws. Folks will have to drop their victimhood status along with those who think they are better by virtue of their race,
MLK's dream was exactly this, judgment by the content of one's character, not the color of their skin.
Of course, nobody cares what I (A middle age white dude) say on this subject because I'm not a member of a politically recognized group of victims...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
" blaming Amazon for a shift to buying goods online".
Well, It would have happened sooner or later. I don't want the physical stores to go away but the fact is that many of them just can't compete with online. And the fact is that I only buy in brick and mortar when I have to have something right now. That, and when buying food or clothes
Here is the thing about computers and automation. They do not make your lives easier, they make them more difficult. Computers and robots are taking away the easy jobs, leaving the hard jobs, that requires more complex thinking, creativity and problem solving skills, and a wider range of movement. Where every day your job will be different.
We cannot try to slow this down (AKA America First), we cannot really ignore the problem (AKA basic income). However there needs to be an effort to get people onto the fact that they need to change, because people can change faster then a computer can. This includes Training the employees, and changing businesses to allow people who do not have the experience to get in and build the experience.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
what about lower the full time hours and or upping 23K (is the new one still held up in court?) Minimum Salary for Exempt Employees
Some places can call some one exempt pay them 25-30K for 60 hour weeks.
Now lowering the full time mark can be an stop gap to universal basic income has more and more automation takes over and it can have less over head of make work in some cases.
High turnover warehouse jobs with an high rate and lots of forced OT just leads to burn out / errors / people gaming the system or working unsafe to make rate.
healthcare needs to be unlinked from the work place.
exempt employee abuse is not just in tech / gaming.
In restaurants like dunkin donuts they want to pay an manger 35-40K to work 60+ hours just so they don't have to hire more hourly staff to cover all open hours and that manger is doing a lot of non manger stuff for a lot of the hours.
"Although the wages offered will make it hard for some to make ends meet" ... and this is the company owned by the richest man on the planet. Pathetic end result of unrestrained capitalism. Pathetic!!
It would be easy to make race irrelevant by simple stop asking for it and while your at it get rid of Affirmative Action and all of the other bennies that come along with being the "right" race like access to mortgages, promotions etc. etc. Until this is done there will always be a race issue in the US.
MLK plagiarized both his speeches and his academic submissions but that does not invalidate the meaning of I have a dream.
I suppose this is evidence to the contrary that the US needs illegals because there are jobs Americans won't do.
Yup. Amazon is well into making picker robots that will pick items off the shelf and put them into the box. When they do, most of the warehouse jobs go away.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
not as long as lenders discrimnate against equally qualified minorities.
https://www.usatoday.com/story...
http://www.denverpost.com/2016...
and refuse to even call back equally qualified minorities for rentals and leases.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/0...
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Serious question:
You said that "computers and robots are taking away the easy jobs, leaving the hard [and complicated] jobs."
And you went on to say: "We cannot try to slow this down (AKA America First), we cannot really ignore the problem (AKA basic income)."
Then you talked about training.
Are you therefore saying that instead of "America First", and instead of "basic income", we need to train people to be able to do the harder, more complicated jobs that are left as computers and robots take away the easy jobs?
If so, as a Csci grad working a help desk, it seems clear to me that many people simply cannot do the more complicated jobs that will be left.
The problem is a lot of people can do it. They were just told that going past the yellow line, is bad and you should get in trouble. I am sure much of your help desk users are not from pure stupidity but from people taking that one step beyond what they were told to do.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Sure, this does still happen but when this happens, IT IS ALREADY ILLEGAL!
We don't ne government to do anything about this except to ENFORCE the existing law that makes it illegal to discriminate based on race. If you have an example of people doing this, document the problem and call law enforcement and get it dealt with. IF law enforcement won't help you, call the state, call the feds, call your elected officials and tell them the law isn't being enforced. Tell your friends, call the news paper, TV and Radio outlets and even protest if you need too. If you live in North Texas, CALL ME, I'll do what I can to help you.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
The CDO crisis was in part due to a soft deal between regulating agencies and the banks. The Fed would look the other way and banks woudl give out mortgages to minorities they knew could not pay them back. A lot of the minority bias in loans is hogwash as the numbers were fudged as a number of studies show: https://www.utdallas.edu/~lieb...
However I do agree that decisions on loans should be financial and on history and be completely blind to race.
Makes me think of times in the last century when people would line up in the hope of work for a day. There are bleak times ahead for us in the middle, when there will only be work for the unskilled (who have to do anything) and for the elite (who make a few decisions about the masses). I love what mechanisation and robotics has done for us but fear its future.
Here is the thing about computers and automation. They do not make your lives easier, they make them more difficult. Computers and robots are taking away the easy jobs, leaving the hard jobs, that requires more complex thinking, creativity and problem solving skills, and a wider range of movement. Where every day your job will be different.
We cannot try to slow this down (AKA America First), we cannot really ignore the problem (AKA basic income). However there needs to be an effort to get people onto the fact that they need to change, because people can change faster then a computer can. This includes Training the employees, and changing businesses to allow people who do not have the experience to get in and build the experience.
Here's the thing about computers and automation taking away the easy jobs, leaving only the complex jobs that require training and education. There's a damn good chance an easy job was your first job because it was the only kind of job you were qualified to do. There's a damn good chance an easy job was what helped pay for training and education to enable you to obtain a skilled job.
Without easy jobs, there is no ladder of success to climb. There is no path to obtain the skills to qualify you for the only jobs left. Regarding change, Greed doesn't seem to care that it's exacerbating this inherent problem. Regarding people adapting, the problem with that is there are a lot of people who simply aren't intelligent enough to grasp a complex job. That's why they have an easy job. That's not meant to be demeaning, simply stating fact.
Yup. Amazon is well into making picker robots that will pick items off the shelf and put them into the box. When they do, most of the warehouse jobs go away.
I find it rather strange that Greed cannot see the business impact that automation will ultimately create. Rather hard to maintain revenue streams when you've automated the masses out of employment, and no one can afford to buy your robot-delivered products.
Of course, Greed is too fucking short-sighted to see this obvious problem...
I agree the CDO crisis was due to
a) giving out mortgages to unqualified people of *all* races (but perhaps minorities at a higher rate).
b) lying and saying that "A" class bonds mixed with bad mortgages were still "A" class.
c) people (esp large funds, governments, etc.) being stupid and buying CDOs that paid 7% when "A" bonds paid 4% and assuming the risk was the same.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
This is a bogus argument. If only 1/3 of the insured get pregnant, then all the less cost for the total pool. Its bogus to say you only want to pay for potential conditions
That's not how change works. The system, as it stands, discriminates at the very beginning. Black women have higher maternal mortality rates, schools in black neighbourhoods aren't as well funded, services are less available to black people, etc., etc.
(Or from a Canadian perspective, First Nations people start incredibly disadvantaged; some reservations have been on boil water advisories for 20 years, and so on.)
They're STARTING from a worse place. Affirmative action type programs are theoretically temporary. Once you've elevated enough of a disadvantaged class, it should be self sustaining, but nobody's there yet. Privilege endures.
It's really disingenuous of you to use that MLK quote; he understood that you have to fight for equality, and that it isn't just handed to you. It doesn't just happen on its own, or he wouldn't have had to march and be thrown in jail or give speeches or be assassinated.
healthcare needs to be unlinked from the work place.
That's how you get worse work.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
We cannot try to slow this down (AKA America First), we cannot really ignore the problem (AKA basic income). However there needs to be an effort to get people onto the fact that they need to change, because people can change faster then a computer can. This includes Training the employees, and changing businesses to allow people who do not have the experience to get in and build the experience.
Actually you have a couple of the options mixed up. Basic income isn't ignoring the problem, it's setting the foundation for a long-term solution. Training and relocation is ignoring the problem. It's Wile E. Coyote running straight from the cannonball instead of stepping to the side. The cannonball represents artificial intelligence and the cartoon coyote represents an attempt to continually outsmart it, no matter how quickly it's advancing or how fast it will eventually become or how exhausting it is to keep the effort up. Jobs getting more scarce and demanding over time? Let them train and relocate and eat cake.
Basic income sidesteps the problem of people continually having to make themselves smarter or more useful than AI and having to fight over the ever-dwindling number of jobs for such people while the owners of the means of production are pointlessly hyper-enriched until the economy collapses or some kind of atrocity is undertaken to correct it. If the economy is supposed to serve mankind, under these conditions it should be harnessed to do so via basic income. The only reason to disagree is if you worship it as a godlike AI that exists for its own purposes (whatever they may be) and that should not be interfered with.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Oh, so you are for equal OUTCOME then? Look, I'm not discounting racism happens, I've seen it, it does. However, you simply cannot measure racism by outcome alone. What we want is equality in OPPERTUNITY, where all men (regardless of the circumstances of their birth) are equal in terms of law and thus opportunity. Not all are equal in ability or drive, which is why you cannot measure opportunity by outcome.
MLK wasn't using the measuring stick of race, he was using the content of your character to measure others. This MUST be properly understood. People should be measured by their character, their effort, their intelligence, by what they produce and NOT by what they look like or what family, race, religion or gender they happen to be. (to extend MLK's dream beyond race). He didn't advocate equal outcome, but equal opportunity. And you produce equal opportunity between the races in law by making laws which are agnostic to race and enforcing them equally.
Any attempt to equalize outcome is nothing more than socialism in disguise. Socialism is antithetical to our founding which was based on equality of opportunity and treatment under the law, which always leads to various levels of outcome due to variances in individual's character. Don't confuse opportunity with outcome, they are not the same in our system.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
or what the old 39.9 hour a week people who get no healthcare under the old system?
I was just thinking today that the "thought processes" of the economy have very little perception of time. There is no past and very little future, just the present moment and short-term plans. I'm confident that if businesses could commit to a plan that would cause the earth to blow up in 5 years but would massively boost profits in the meantime, they would do it.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
It's now been replaced with 29.9 hours and contractor abuse.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
This phenomenon is referred to as "the long tail," a reference to the part of a Gaussian curve of product availability that lies outside of the center where most brick and mortar retailers concentrate.
It's amazing to be able to find, usually at a reasonable price, nearly anything one can imagine and come up with search terms for.
Are you for real? Trump basically won because he gave voice to middle aged white snowflakes like you who complain they are not getting any attention even though you have the most opportunity and benefits. It is no one else's fault that a lot of white people choose to throw away their advantages by not studying, taking opioids, or whatever else.
You cannot be serious...
Trump won because he appealed to people OUTSIDE the party, ostensibly the middle of the road political folks. He also won because of Hillary, who was such a bad candidate that she lost even after the "Access Hollywood" tapes dropped within weeks of the election. Then there is the whole racial perspective on this where democrats ran a white woman to follow the black man into the presidency and I'm pretty sure that suppressed the democratic turnout in some key places and allowed Trump to pick up states on narrow margins to pick up electoral votes and win.
Seriously, Trump didn't really win this on his merits, Realistically he should have lost hands down. What happened is Hillary was such a bad candidate, ran such a bad campaign that SHE LOST despite being a shoe in for the win. Surely you see this. And don't forget this is coming from what you describe as a "White middle aged snowflake"... Hillary was the worst possible candidate I could imagine and ran a horrible campaign who lost to the second worst possible candidate I could think of. She got cocky, drank her own kool-aid and lost because she didn't think she had to put any effort into it.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
My white uncle works for them.
Yes, they were paying S&P and Moodys millions to grade the CDOs as AAA when they were full of crap.
A lot of people got caught because water shed funds, pensions and other funds that only buy AAA picked these up automatically or as part of a larger package.
No one notices that people were speculating on the bubble when they were getting these ridiculous balloon mortgages on 5 houses when they could not afford the mortgage on one?
They did a study, sent out 5000 identical resumes for over 1500 positions... except 25% were for Jamal, 25% for Greg, 25% for Lakeisha, and 25% for Emily.
Greg and Emily got a call back for every 10 resumes sent with their name on it.
Jamal and Lakeisha got a call back for every 15 resumes sent with their name on it.
No where was race listed on the resumes.
No, the GP was repeatedly saying that the problem was they didn't have equal opportunity ("STARTING from a worse place"). Everything else you say stems from that misunderstanding.
Expel Indians to get back your Jobs http://www.petition2congress.c...
Casteism