The miniscule fraction of people in the software industry who are building AI are not the people in the software industry who are at risk of being replaced by AI.
Do agree with that, at least in the short term (not the long term). But most industries tend to band together, form unions, associations, licenses, etc that would unify and put the workers in the same boat one way or the other especially blue collar which is what this article is about. The point still stands - other industries are "smarter" and wouldn't do this to themselves and have controls against this sort of thing.
>Very little. Because non-union workers join the union as soon as they see the benefits.
This isn't true and sounds like union propaganda. It's very easy to find non-union trade workers in big cities, even very liberal ones that are supportive of unions.
>As opposed to broken minds by 50 for toxic corporate jobs.
People don't have broken minds from corporate jobs. Physical damage from labor is real and extremely common. Every tradesman 40+ will tell you this. People retiring from corporate jobs do not consistently warn people that your mind will be broken.
>And yet, they can pick and choose their work for the most part. No badging in for 5 day RTO BS.
Are you joking? RTO isn't a thing because the trades were never allowed to work from home in the first place.
I worked as a software engineer for 29 years and quit earlier this year. The stress and my blood pressure were significantly affecting my health and quality of life. I had started a part-time handyman business last year and took it full time after quitting my corporate job. My blood pressure and stress level have gone down a lot, but so has my paycheck and my benefits. I'm still glad that I made the switch because my last corporate job was going to kill me for the sake of corporate profits and executive bonuses.
I would say that there's good/bad from both sides of the coin. It's a personal choice and not everyone is the same.
Sounds like you took the handyman job as employtainment. Being a handyman is incredibly stressful if you’re trying to raise a family on that income and are having trouble making ends meet.
In my case, I tracked it regularly and when it was high I would try to go out for a nice walk outside or anything that might be calming. I limited my salt intake. The real solution for me was quitting my job.
> People don't have broken minds from corporate jobs
I would just like to say I wholeheartedly disagree.
A LOT of the much older people I know are struggling really, really bad. I'm talking conspiracies, abject misery, downright delusion. The trouble with "broken minds" is that you can't see it. If you could, your mind wouldn't be broken!
- competition from non-Union labor
- broken body by 50
- fewer jobs than programming (there are multiple times as many programming jobs than plumbing, for instance)
- working conditions (no office work, expect hot/cold environments potentially far away from family)