Octopus Overlords

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:41 am

• Northern Virginia, Virginia

pr0ner wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2018 4:24 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:41 am

• Northern Virginia, Virginia

The biggest question from Friday’s disappointing Canadian employment report is how much can be traced to Ontario’s sharp minimum wage increase last month.

Canada’s economy lost 137,000 part-time jobs in January, a record monthly decline, led by a drop of 59,000 in Ontario, which was also a record. Ontario saw a net loss of 51,000 jobs.

The numbers are hardly good news for Premier Kathleen Wynne, who increased minimum wages by more than 20 percent on Jan. 1. Big grocers such as Loblaw Cos. and Empire Co. said the wage hike would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars and may accelerate a move to automation like self-serve checkouts. Some smaller restaurant owners also said they would change their menus and juggle shifts as a way of dealing with higher costs.

But economists, and even critics, are reluctant to jump to conclusions based on just one month of data, even though no one is dismissing the possibility that it had an impact.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:02 pm Still think minimum wages in the US are too low and should be much more to keep up with inflation. minimum wage workers should not have to work 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet.

Alefroth wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:27 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:02 pm Still think minimum wages in the US are too low and should be much more to keep up with inflation. minimum wage workers should not have to work 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet.

If only there was some collective of minimum wage workers that could increase their bargaining power.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:30 pm

Alefroth wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:27 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:02 pm Still think minimum wages in the US are too low and should be much more to keep up with inflation. minimum wage workers should not have to work 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet.

If only there was some collective of minimum wage workers that could increase their bargaining power.

There is. They are called robots.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:02 pm Still think minimum wages in the US are too low and should be much more to keep up with inflation. minimum wage workers should not have to work 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet.

Inundated with customers eager to see the machine in action this week, Cali Group, which runs the fast food chain, quickly realized the robot couldn’t keep up with the demand. They decided instead to retrain the restaurant staff to work more efficiently alongside Flippy, according to USA Today.

Temporarily decommissioned, patrons encountered a sign Thursday noting that Flippy would be “cooking soon,” the paper reported.

“Mostly it’s the timing,” Anthony Lomelino, the Chief Technology Officer for Cali Group told the paper. “When you’re in the back, working with people, you talk to each other. With Flippy, you kind of need to work around his schedule. Choreographing the movements of what you do, when and how you do it.”

Moliere wrote: ↑Fri Mar 09, 2018 6:08 pm “With Flippy, you kind of need to work around his schedule. Choreographing the movements of what you do, when and how you do it.”

em2nought wrote: ↑Sat Mar 10, 2018 12:57 am

Moliere wrote: ↑Fri Mar 09, 2018 6:08 pm “With Flippy, you kind of need to work around his schedule. Choreographing the movements of what you do, when and how you do it.”

How is that different than working with the type of people we are producing nowadays?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo0KjdDJr1c

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:05 am Hah ha! Stupid younger generation. they're so stupid.

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:05 am Hah ha! Stupid younger generation. they're so stupid.

On May 14, City Council is scheduled to vote on an "employee head tax," which would impose a 26 cent levy on every hour worked by an employee at companies making more than $20 million a year. The tax would hit between 500 and 600 businesses; it is supposed to raise about $75 million a year for homelessness and affordable housing services.
...
Amazon isn't taking the tax lying down. On Tuesday the company announced that it is pausing construction planning for a 17-story building intended to serve as office space for some 7,000 Amazon employees. Amazon is being uncharacteristically explicit about the reasons for the stall.

"I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head-tax vote by City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18 project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sublease all space in our recently leased Rainier Square building," company spokesperson Drew Herdener said in a statement.

Supporters of the tax were incensed at this unintended yet totally predictable consequence of their policy.

"If Amazon generally wants to engage about how they can be part of the solution, we welcome that conversation," Councilmember Mike O'Brian said Wednesday, according to The Seattle Times. "But we need companies that are profitable and making billions of dollars every year to help with the folks that are being forced out of housing and ending up on the street."

Councilmember Kshama Sawant—a self-proclaimed socialist who has endorsed the nationalization of another Seattle-area corporate titan, Boeing—was less subtle. Sawant calls Amazon's refusal to passively accept the taxation "blackmail," and she organized a Thursday rally outside Amazon's headquarters.

em2nought wrote: ↑Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:01 am

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:05 am Hah ha! Stupid younger generation. they're so stupid.

I found this to be very interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXWNChoIluo

Moliere wrote: ↑Fri May 04, 2018 5:25 pm Seattle found another way to get rid of all their excess jobs.

Rip wrote:They aren't done killing jobs yet.

http://komonews.com/news/local/amazon-f ... n-projects

Amazon 'Questions' Its Growth In Seattle After City Passes Watered-Down Tax to Help Homeless

Moliere wrote: ↑Tue May 15, 2018 7:02 pm The Mustache weighs in on Seattle.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:41 am Since this is the de facto Amazon HQ thread: 20 finalists

• Dallas, Texas

On Tuesday, Arlington officials announced Amazon passed on the city, stating it is "no longer moving forward in the selection process" for HQ2. Arlington was informed of the tech giant's decision in recent weeks.

"I think they're looking for a more advanced urban setting," Mayor Jeff Williams told CNNMoney.
...
Arlington, which has a population of nearly 400,000, may be out of the running, but other cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area appear to remain under consideration.
...
Other major metro areas also submitted multiple sites for consideration. For example, New York City's bid suggested four areas for the new facility: Midtown West, Long Island City, the Brooklyn Tech Triangle and Lower Manhattan.
...
Still, Williams is pleased Arlington was a finalist. He hopes the proposed site will attract another corporation to relocate to the city.

Smug Seattle to mom and pop landlords: Criminals are welcome! Your rights not so much

Let’s say MariLyn meets the first person to apply for a vacant unit in her triplex. The applicant checks out on paper, but she’s disturbed to see his skin is littered with swastikas and prison tattoos.

Under the first-in-time rule, she would have had to offer him the unit.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon May 21, 2018 8:49 am So he's on Fox posting an article condemning a practice that can actually help the average Fox News viewer?

Yesterday Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, along with seven of nine city councilmembers, released a statement announcing their intention to repeal the controversial employee head tax.

"It is clear that the ordinance will lead to a prolonged, expensive political fight over the next five months that will do nothing to tackle our urgent housing and homelessness crisis," reads Monday's statement. "This week, the City Council is moving forward with the consideration of legislation to repeal the current tax on large businesses to address the homelessness crisis."

Had the City Council not killed its own head tax, voters might have.

Almost immediately after Durkan signed the tax into law, an initiative campaign was launched to put the head tax on the November 2019 ballot. Within days the campaign had attracted $300,000 in funding including $25,000 a piece from Starbucks and Amazon. The effort reportedly gathered 22,000 signatures by June 7, comfortably above the 17,000 it needed before its June 14 deadline.

Rather than risk an expensive ballot campaign that public opinion polling suggested would not go its way, the council has decided to pull the tax and try again.