If automation is good, no one will be a worker in automation

Nestor 2022-01-18 08:01:11

At the end of the documentary, Cao Dewang, led by a group of Chinese personnel, inspected the workshop of Fuyao's US factory. The staff reported to Cao Dewang confidently: a few people will be removed here tomorrow, and a few people there will be removed the day after tomorrow, because their American workers are too slow and the machines are more efficient.

This scene reminded me of the Nazi massacre. The firing squads were shot one by one. You know that the next one is yourself, but you don't even have the courage to resist. On the contrary, you want to be more comfortable in obedience.

Of course, this analogy is a bit too much, after all, automation is not a bad thing. Human society must progress, and the next generation must pursue higher happiness. Just as no one wanted to be a farmer in China in the 1960s and 1970s, and everyone was proud of being a worker. Today, few Chinese young people are willing to be farmers. When being a worker, everyone wants to be a white-collar worker and a freelancer.

The changes of the times will always produce some victims, and automation sacrifices those workers who are in their 40s or 50s who know nothing but assembly line operations.

If automation is good, no one will be a worker in automation.

Township entrepreneurs like to have workers line up and operate, and the movements of the machines are more uniform.

The film’s perspective is very neutral, and Cao Dewang did not forget to install a force in the film at the end: I felt very happy when I lived in the backward CN in the past. When I stepped into today’s society, although all modern materials have come up, But there is always a kind of loss, that is, it is difficult for me to go back to the time when cicadas called frogs.

Familiar? Isn’t it like Jack Ma’s phrase "I miss being a teacher when I get 91 yuan a month."

The big guys' pretending creativity is too barren and too similar. Donate your luxury property and go to the cicadas to call the frogs and return to the countryside in minutes.

Saying this kind of bullshit does nothing but expose your hypocrisy.

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Extended Reading
  • Ona 2022-03-25 09:01:19

    Faced with the remarks of the two Chinese shift leaders in the film (one said that he was forced to work overtime on weekends, and that if he didn't work overtime, he would get out, and sue where he wanted to go; When I meet these two or similar people in my life, I would definitely avoid them.

  • Joaquin 2022-03-20 09:02:36

    The best part of this film is the lightness of the tone, light and short shots that resemble clips, but everyone can see the iceberg under the sea. The initial purpose of American labor unions was to protect the most basic rights and interests of workers at the bottom. Today, it has become an objective obstacle to efficiency. China's efficiency is staggering, but some workers are also embarrassingly inferior. The maintenance of basic human dignity should not be ridiculed, just as "struggling" with trade unions in the United States within the legal framework is just a strategy. What we should think about is how to maintain basic rights and how to work effectively on the premise that the basic rights are maintained. There are some natural conflicts between the protection of rights and efficiency, but there is still a long way to go before the conflict occurs, and we need that part of the road. Fill. It is hard to ridicule those who defend rights just because we have nothing. In this world, there is still a big spectrum between slave-like work and lazy people who depend on institutional guarantees. This documentary is not partial and only presents, presenting a kind of universal human helplessness, either on the left or on the right.

American Factory quotes

  • Himself - Fuyao Safety Director: Everybody at every level will say that we really, really want to be safe. But safety doesn't pay the bills.