< /Idiocracy The Movie >
Posted on 09/22/2013 3:04:28 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
The old textile mills here are mostly gone now. Gaffney Manufacturing, National Textiles, Cherokee — clangorous, dusty, productive engines of the Carolinas fabric trade — fell one by one to the forces of globalization.
Just as the Carolinas benefited when manufacturing migrated first from the Cottonopolises of England to the mill towns of New England and then to here, where labor was even cheaper, they suffered in the 1990s when the textile industry mostly left the United States.
It headed to China, India, Mexico — wherever people would spool, spin and sew for a few dollars or less a day. Which is why what is happening at the old Wellstone spinning plant is so remarkable.
Drive out to the interstate, with the big peach-shaped water tower just down the highway, and you’ll find the mill up and running again. Parkdale Mills, the country’s largest buyer of raw cotton, reopened it in 2010.
The [Parkdale] mill here produces 2.5 million pounds of yarn a week with about 140 workers. In 1980, that production level would have required more than 2,000 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Any story involving US textile mills and peach-shaped water towers is a must read...”pinging” for later, and THANKS for posting!
What will Humans do when we don’t need each other to do anything?
Maybe they’d have more employees on the floor if they offered a higher minimum wage. /S
More seriously, this is what will happen to fast food joints—they’ll become vending-machine-like automated factories with a few skilled maintenance people and bulk food handlers. The customer will exchange credit with a terminal, and the food will be delivered through a slot. It will be the New Automat (if anyone remembers those NYC restaurants of the early 50’s).
< /Idiocracy The Movie >
last thing i ever bought in an Automat was a piece of pie...
Well, SKYNET will determine that we are no longer needed and will be slated for extermination.
We could also help the unemployed by imposing a 29.5 hour work week. /s
The Automat gave the illusion of machine service, although it was really quite labor intensive with the guys behind the glass racing to keep the compartments filled.
The restaurant of the future will be machine intensive, but they’ll try to find some way to give the illusion of personalization.
Holds 1,000,000 gallons of water. Been there since the early 80s.
Well, it lowers unemployment, because it takes more workers to perform the same amount of economic activity. Of course, the workers are much worse off, because they have to take second jobs to pay for their healthcare, and the companies are worse off, too, because they have so much red tape to manage to avoid big fines.
I think I would just rather cook my own food at home.
While we are advocating legalizing 10-20 million illegals, we are getting ready to implement large scale farm robotics, self driving cars, and new AI software that can displace tens of millions of workers, and it is all going to hit in the same 10-15 years.
Where now are all those who so loudly proclaimed a service economy was the future?
Read an article that said MCD is working on adding more automation to their stores. Makes a lot of sense.
It’s funny that the minimum wage for a machine is less than what the marxists require.
lol
When my family passes it regularly the grandkids say “there’s the big butt”...
seriesly.
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