The Great Resignation
Bob Lefsetz, The Great Resignation:
Maybe all the existing systems are out of date, they don’t work for the public. The machines replace people and then what, we’re all gonna drive Uber? What happens when we have self-driving cars?
Not that anybody is thinking about it, just like they’re not thinking or doing anything about global warming. Used to be we lived in a society, we felt an obligation to look out for each other, but then Reagan came along and said the government was evil and we should all put ourselves first, and then we did! Screw everybody else, life is just too hard!
The youngsters know all this. And all the oldsters can do is bitch about their work habits and expectations. The boomers got sexually harassed, you should endure it too! Huh? Homey don’t play that no more.
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As for Occupy Wall Street…what we learned is protest doesn’t work, action does. Don’t show up for work and Wall Street has a problem.
They’ve pushed it so far that people have finally had enough, and they’re not only pushing back, they’re quitting the game! This was not foreseen. This was not predicted. You didn’t read about this anywhere. But it happened and is still happening. It’s not like you can force people to work hard for a pittance. And there’s plenty of money, it’s just that Wall Street, the owners of this country, don’t want to cough it up.
(I don’t think self-driving cars are going to happen in my lifetime, but I also don’t think that invalidates his point about automation.)
It is fun to read a cogent take about how this current instability in the US means things could change for the better, but considering I was born during the Reagan administration, you can understand my hesitancy to adopt any kind of optimism around change… so I find myself awfully pessimistic about there being a revolution where things get better rather than worse.