[TeMPOraL]

Assuming this isn't satire: who will pay those people to keep up with alternate career options and continuously retrain themselves in case of being let go? I don't see employers lining up to pay people for what's effectively a second full time job. Hell, I don't think it's a sane expectation to have of people, but if you insist, then I'll be the first to petition and vote for regulation that will squeeze the entrepreneurs dry to fund retraining of the people they tell to eat cake while they automate away their livelihood.

[valval]

Leave the quips out of HN comments as per the commenting guidelines.

As for your actual question, the internet is full of free knowledge. Many employers give employees a budget for self development and learning as well, but honestly, learning new things is an investment made by individuals for individuals.

[tired-turtle]

Not sure what part of GP was a quip.

The post GP is replying to reads as satire unless you hold a Hobbesian view of the social contract. It could be a line from Silicon Valley.

[TeMPOraL]

Sorry for the quip.

My point is that:

> the internet is full of free knowledge

Most of which is not useful for doing a career 180°. Unless you're going into software, putting theory into practice requires access to tools, material, and access to instructors, all of which cost money on an ongoing basis.

> Many employers give employees a budget for self development and learning as well

In tech. And few other career paths where this is something that makes sense. Most people in most jobs don't have this.

> honestly, learning new things is an investment made by individuals for individuals.

Again, only possible in tech and few other career paths. It's particularly easy with software, given that the job is usually... not consistently demanding, and you can get away with a lot of self-investment while on the clock before your boss starts to suspect something. Or you and your team can just start or re-write a project in a technology stack that is a great choice to put on your resume, but not so much for the problem being solved. Again, few other jobs give such opportunities.

The point I'm trying to make is, tech jobs are an outlier. Most other careers don't leave space to learn new trade when your boss isn't looking. Most adults come home exhausted after 8+ hours of work, some amount of commute, and have plenty of time-consuming responsibilities to deal with, which they can't outsource because they're not earning tech salaries. Sure, there are always some people that still manage to re-skill and switch careers. There are also some people who'll risk everything on a new venture and not end up homeless in the process. But it's not what most people can do - not adults, with dependents and costs of living at the level adequate for their current job, not when that job is suddenly taken away from them, while they're being ridiculed by the same people who said and keep saying to everyone else "nah, automation isn't a big deal, it creates new jobs, better jobs, more jobs than it takes away".

EDIT: Also, this is the kind of a problem that we can keep ignoring at our own peril. People who end up having their lives derailed by the "system" or "progress" don't disappear. They're still there, still a part of society - and when there's enough of them and when they all feel that society has screwed them over and left to wither and die, they will rise up and tear the society down. As it happened many times in history. And us tech workers with decent salaries and little responsibility - we aren't the top elite that always manages to buy or talk their way out of trouble. We're the very class that is first to be hanging on trees or lubricating guillotine blades.

[ekianjo]

> who will pay those people to keep up with alternate career options and continuously retrain themselves in case of being let go

You need to be able to read to access most knowledge.