[gspr]

> Yeah, that is why carpenters are still around and no one buys Ikea.

I'm sorry, what? Are you suggesting that Ikea made carpenters obsolete? It's been less than 6 months since last I had a professional carpenter do work in my house. He seemed very real. And charged very real prices. This despite the fact that I've got lots of Ikea stuff.

[cinntaile]

Compared to before, not a lot of carpenters/furniture makers are left. This is due to automation.

[gspr]

> Compared to before, not a lot of carpenters/furniture makers are left.

Which is it? Carpenters or furniture makers? Because the two have nothing in common beyond the fact that both professions primarily work with wood. The former has been unaffected by automation – or even might plausibly have more demand due to the overall economic activity caused by automation! The latter certainly has been greatly affected.

The fact that people all over the thread are mixing up the two is mindboggling. Is there a language issue or something?

[tmtvl]

There is a language issue: carpenter is used as synonym of woodworker. It's like someone who doesn't know anything about computers using the term 'memory' to mean storage rather than working memory (i.e. RAM).

[cinntaile]

From the context it was pretty obvious what the original poster meant, as long as you charitably interpret their message. As per the site guidelines.

[1718627440]

Nah, IKEA has replaced moving furniture with throwing it away and rebuying it. Prior to IKEA hiring a carpenter was also something that is done a few times in a lifetime/century. If anything it has commodized creating new furniture.