[tluyben2]

Cheaper I understand, however, it doesn't seem very healthy work. I worked with people doing it full time at that time (and apparently not much has changed); most of those had damaged hips from walking the same way behind the carts they pushed for 10-15 years. And I can see why this would mentally affect you, although I must say that most of them actually liked it. I was setting up a software business and was telling about that ; they were just saying 'why not work here, no stress, it's great! never any stress and fixed paycheck'. That sounds different than the Amazon one, but you cannot really do that in NL ; you can set a 'realistic, sustainable minimum' amount of work they have to do, but that differs per person; you cannot fire or reprimand someone for not 'making the beep' if that means you have to walk faster than normal or even run for it. So everyone would be quite relaxed and yet everything gets done with the people happy. So cheaper but unhealthy maybe?

Also; I don't know much about the robots involved and what they would cost and how much prices are going to drop; seeing that humans are wasting quite a bit of space on the floor and have other issues, I'm not sure if it's cheaper? I'm sure Amazon calculates that often though , so I guess it is.

Occupied; I see that as a reason, but that's an issue anyway; we cannot keep doing it that for that reason (and they don't, but as you say). If the work can be done by machines, it will be done with machines.

[fit2rule]

>Cheaper I understand, however, it doesn't seem very healthy work.

My family works its own garden. We have a modest plot, which we push into production very comfortably, for about 8 months a year. This plot, which was once a 'pleasure-garden' around our house, replaces a family of 4's vegetable-nutrient needs at the grocery for about 6 months a year. Its a lot of work, mostly for my wife, but if I "didn't have to work elsewhere", the two of us could definitely have a much bigger yield.

The point I'm trying to make is that in fact, gardening for ones own vegetables simply has to get fashionable again. Even if you are a city-dweller, yes: garden culture has to push towards sustainable, edibles, as quickly as possible.

Which means, I predict the work is going to get easier, not harder. The false-economy of buying an Apple for 10c, which was trucked from a few thousand km's away, is really the end of it; our Pear tree gets us supplied good and plenty, and it costs nothing but a bit of rope to keep it propped up in the winds .. oh, sure, I did have to build a flame-thrower to keep the wasps away, but: that was fun!

[tluyben2]

Gardening feels healthy though. We live of our own fruit/veg almost whole year round. I think it's fun and besides my dogs, we can almost live on what we create ourselves.

[iSnow]

>Cheaper I understand, however, it doesn't seem very healthy work.

The short-term financial gain goes to Amazon (and to a smaller degree the pickers), but the long-term costs of an unhealthy job are paid for by the healthcare system. Therefore there is an incentive to create those jobs.