Companies who mandated a full return to office work knew exactly what would happen, heavy turnover across the top, and that's a big reason why they went all-in on mandates. It handled the inevitable corporate layoffs and firings for management without getting their hands dirty.

I mean, we're talking about AI which is way more controlling, intrusive and life-altering for billions of human beings than a steel monopoly.

It's certainly worth trying after barely regulating the early Internet era of tech didn't exactly deflect monopolies (Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft control the planet). The "there's always a bigger fish" Capitalism of tech ends in one place -- with one or two companies controlling 100% of society. Monopolies on steroids.

Believe there's a word for that..... oh, yes, it's anti-social.

The legendary movie "Small Soldiers" covers this nicely.

Yet this article/thread is about companies moving away from self checkout.

Ironically, it's the white collar middle class suburbanites you wouldn't expect who neglect to scan a 12 pack of waters or bottle of laundry detergent each time they check out. "Oops!" How do I know? Used to run a security company.

I shouldn't be able to incorporate the copy protected works of others into my own creation to sell for profit, nor should any company. That's what the public domain is for.

If this was the 100% non-negotiable truth, why did 20th century artists and music labels who presumed the sampling of copyright music quite liberally was free (the Queen bass line in Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" single, for one of numerous examples) end up having to pay royalties to the copyright owners?

That sentiment might change if you owned a retail business. Stores lose a lot of money from people stealing at self-checkout. Normal regular everyday people do it all the time. Most Americans are thieves when they're certain they can get away with it.

Weird how the federal government spent 6 trillion in 2023 yet nobody in the government worked! That's such a line of b.s. especially considering the trillions that were handed straight over to the private sector last year in the form of contracts and projects.

I'm not the original commenter, but the notion of sitting in a dark office for 8 hours doing absolutely nothing *just to stick it to The Man (who won't give a flying carcass)" is ludicrous to me. It would drive me batty. Staying busy makes the work day go by much quicker. It's the company or institution's fault if they lack the ability to maximize the productivity of their employees (just to stubbornly insist on bodies at desks).

No semi-intelligent politician worth their dark money coffers would ban TikTok in America during a presidential campaign year.

Software developers could be put out of work by code/tech that was created by.... ..... other software developers. As a fan of irony, it's pretty funny.

But, then Republicans would have to roll up the sleeves and work until a budget is set every year, and that takes away from their Fox News air time.