All people deserve the fruits of their labour. But not all labour bears fruit worth harvesting.
And I say that fully in support of the idea that unchecked capitalism doesn't have all the solutions to properly recognizing the value of toilet plunging.
Honestly, UBI probably cuts through all those problems, including the elephant in the room which is the march of automation continues to devalue more and more and more labour.
If we don't learn, then WTF are we doing with ourselves. The human existence is the pursuit of knowledge. The only depressing thing here, IMO, is the idea that living out a life as grazing cattle, concerned with nothing more than gorging oneself with the next meal is the only reason to live.
Comfortable? Sure. Self-actualized? Not a chance. There's more to life than living out only the most basic biological needs.
No one, either in comments, nor in article, actually touches on form factor. The fact is that sedans are only good for moving people, but there's better options for that: like cycling or train. The real benefit of an SUV's form factor (or pickup, or station wagon, or hatchback) is that you can move cargo with it, the kind of stuff that you can't move with efficient people movers.
Not all jobs are measured by time spent on the clock, so no it doesn't have to be that way. Many jobs can and should be measured by simply meeting productivity requirements. A parking attendants job is being present on shift because that is a requirement of that job. But a programmer's job is to create software that performs a certain way. There is no time requirement of the product there.
Just cause you suffered your way through it doesn't mean you should encourage others to do the same.
You are not wrong about the lack of corporate culture. But at the end of the day, is that worth giving up family time, company of your pets, a corner office of your choosing, with access to your own fridge and amenities, being able to receive people at the door at reasonable hours, and not having to commute asinine hours?
Many people will reject that notion.
But here's the kicker: companies don't care about your well being. They only care about the bottom line. What incentive do they have to cater to your needs? None, other than the minimum for employee retention.
This idea of "team building" is just smoke and mirrors. An excuse to not have to admit the real reason: adapting away from buts-in-seats as a performance measure is hard.
problem seems to be [...] intertwined language with culture
You lost the argument right here. Language is as fundamental to culture as the sky is blue.
The rest of your post amounts to "communication is important to function" and you are not wrong on that front. But you put no weight on the importance of culture too.
Consider this your wakeup call, that just because you don't personally care about society having an identity doesn't mean the rest of us don't.
You've got bigger problems than labour relations when "having a pleasant feminine voice" is the success criteria you use to measure the performance of a reporter.
I dunno, this logic sounds exactly like the fucked up logic that went on in the conference room that dreamed up this shitty idea only to have it face reality and be pulled on day one.
It's faster until you need the human operator to keep coming over because the anti-theft sensors keep getting tripped up by false positive readings. Or you need to find some vegetable code that a normal cashier has memorized.
Self checkout is great when it's done well, and total shit when poorly executed. And unfortunately, it's not always just a matter of technology (which normally keeps improving); it's often a matter of business model: sometimes customer convenience is really important, other times loss prevention (which creates frustration) is more important.
I've seen countless good self-checkout experiences backslide into crap experience because the business felt that a controlled client is more profitable than a convenienced client.
Just ask if they are law enforcement. If they say no or say nothing, then assume they are just some creepy citizen and stay away. If they say yes but can't produce a badge, they have instantly committed impersonation.
Law enforcement has to identify itself in an official capacity if you are being detained or questioned. This should be obvious. Policing powers are only given to police officers, so it behooves the police to be very clear that they are the police.
Because many people don't see it that way. Many people see this more as a "stop defending yourself" statement.
In reality, this is a very difficult situation for everyone that can only end in one of two ways: listening to grievances on ALL sides and finding compromise (which usually results in no one getting what they want), or more bloodshed.
On a side note, I smell the implication that internal debate within a party, or changing policy in response to public sentiment is some kind of weakness. In reality, this is the healthiest manifestation of democracy. If someone can't respect that, then all I can say is they have no business calling themselves Canadian.
Trump's power is not derived from a piece of paper. That was the Democrats mistake.
Trump's power comes directly from the people. In a democracy, ultimately the people get the last say.
The transactions are far from over. There are many more transactions to come. From as little as continuing to support Trump-freindly representatives, all the way up to not actively rebelling against his administration.