8) PRODUCTIVITY IS FOR ROBOTS
Amazon is building a new store: when you walk in, your phone beeps.
When you pick up a book and put it in your basket, your phone notices. When you walk out of the store, your phone logs into your account in Amazon and buys the books in your basket.
That’s every store. And then maybe every restaurant.
Where will the cashiers go?
I ask economists. Technologists. Billionaires. And cashiers. I asked a billionaire and a cashier yesterday (two different people. It would be funny if the cashier was also a billionaire).
The billionaire said, “I don’t know.”
The cashier said, “Well, the networks will still need people to maintain them for that store.”
Not one store, I said. What happens when there are 1 million stores and you don’t need to need add more people to maintain the networks.
The cashier said, “I don’t know. I hope I’m dead by then.”
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