Meanwhile the rest of the world is on-board with some of what China is doing, especially the stuff that cuts the US out of things like international banking
As if China won't follow the same playbook? They've already done the rare earths bit, and as you've alluded to, want to axe the US out completely. What makes you think they'll stop at just the US? It's a powerful weapon. There will be immense internal pressure to use it with or without permission from the rest of the world. Europe's preferences be dammed. Note: The same would apply to the Europeans, or anyone else, given that power. It allows collapsing a country you don't like without firing a single bullet. No country is immune to that temptation.
If there is a cold war, it's because the US seem to want one.
The average American in fact does not want a war, but that matters very little given the massively corrupt government that they have. Their government represents them in name only. (Unless they just so happen to be the small, loud, fraction of them that actively supports pedos.)
Conservatives there need a Big Bad to justify what they are doing.
Conservatives need nothing. They've had something to legitimately rail against ever since the owner class shipped all of their jobs to China. The problem is the owner class, who's convinced them that immigrants, LBTQ, etc. are responsible for it, instead of the owner class wanting to take more of their money. The Conservative's politicians, need no justification either. Might makes right is their justification. As they've already demonstrated with C-COT, killing Americans for protesting, terrorizing progressive cities, withholding congressionally mandated funds, blatantly defying court orders, threatening nationalization of elections, etc.
They're Chinese, they literally snatched the literal halo and ran off with it to make a knock-off copy. Literally.
This. Sony has nothing of value, (since when has China ever cared about IP?), TCL now owns their branding and makes the sets. Sony has effectively exited the TV market, and the article is delusional if they think Sony has any remaining value there.
If you see a "Sony" TV in a store from now on, remember: It's Chinese.
I've seen and benefitted from AI's capability. I'm not hiring because of it. I'm not outsourcing because of it.
And eventually, you'll be paying for it.
Whether that be through lower returns on your advertising dollars. (More ADs in ChatGPT for people who have no money to spend.)
Higher electricity bills. (Already here and growing.)
Higher AI subscription costs. (AI isn't profitable, now. They'll need to fix that before the VC funding runs out, and you're the ones who will pay.)
Lower units sold. (B2B or B2C, doesn't matter. No-one's getting paid a living wage, so even the B2Bs are going to suffer when the B2Cs run out of money.)
But yeah, keep pretending that UBI is going to magically fix everything, or that everyone is suddenly going to get employed by some other company so it won't be your problem. Your next quarterly review depends on it.
Price is your pain. Probably because you promised a barista a living wage without realizing the cost of living shouldn't be tied to a cup of coffee.
And, there's the problem. People think that serving customers should be a side job / hustle, when in reality many are lucky to even get that job. Given that we've systematically eliminated every other form of low skill labor in the country. While doing absolutely nothing about the ever increasing numbers of low skilled workers. The irony of the parent's comment in a story about automation invading these roles in an effort to save the company money....
Note, that Starbucks isn't the only fast food joint to suffer from this. They all do, and for the exact same reasons: There's no entry level work for people anymore, so they're increasingly dependent on jobs that used to be considered "summer jobs." Not everyone has the means to go to school for four years just to land one job interview, and now that most people have a four year degree, that degree is no longer a distinction that separates a good worker from the rest of the pack. It's become an expensive checkbox to be ticked that looks weird when it's not to employers.
Making matters worse we now have LLMs coming for those four year degree jobs. Which is leading us into a credential crisis (No point in going to school if an LLM will eliminate any chance of getting a foot in the door before you graduate), a debt crisis (student loans already handed out can't be discharged due to LLMs taking all of the jobs the loan was meant to train you for), and a cost of living crisis. No entry level jobs means, no chances to rise up to a point that the LLM can't replace *yet*. Also means you don't have a lot of people flush with disposable income, and that means the overall prices society is willing to pay for everything drops like a rock. Automation has a price people. That price is that society must move those displaced by it into other jobs that pay enough for them to pay their bills. At society's immediate expense, and some rich asshole's immediate profit.
Newsflash folks: You can't expect people with no skills to just go die in a puddle of their piss somewhere. Just because you feel like that's all they deserve given their skill set. At the end of the day you have two options: Either pay for the living costs of others (regardless of skill set), or watch as they burn down society to feel it's warmth. You can try to augment that by offering classes for them to skill up, but that has to be affordable in addition to their existing living costs.
SCOTUS wants to argue over video viewer logs? Priorities, people, priorities!
Jackboot Thug: "Sir, he watched Great Secrets of the White House, National Treasure 2, and a ridiculous amount of Feel the Bern, Greatest Speeches."
TDS: "Send him, to the CCOT. We can't, have, such a GREAT DANGER, great danger to our United Shates. Can't have it."
Jackboot Thug: "As you wish, Sir."
Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth. -- Nero Wolfe