"Machines take our job" and "Money devaluing the arts and skills2... e.g. Barbers without a job from people buying hair clippers and doing it themselves....
TLDR It's a terrible balance of DIY (saves time and labour) BUT not giving other people things to do.
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More below, with some stories in between thinking out loud about the above....
Machines take our job for sure...
I think the clearest example are hair clippers and doing it yourself.... 💇 and it's not always bad (unless work is just about doing meaningless things for needing more money for less meaningful reasons).
So my example is that there less need for many barbers after buying a machine. Sure a few, but much less money in it... if you're a barber doing it for the money / living wage.
I remember never going to the barbers for a hair cut after I bought hair clippers early on in my life for the price of about 4 hair cuts let's say.
And they got a bit cheaper too (lots of crap quality but overall I think maybe 3 clippers in life but I have been cutting my hair most of my life too).
I simply did it myself or my parents did it in the chair 💇
And that was with and without machine (I remember with scrissors ✂️ having a hack at hair and expecting to find someone anywhere to help "just do the back" for me!!) - It was a fun time!
I did think of my Greek barber with guilt after hearing by chance that he died. Didn't help that it was by chance but already community wasn't really there and I was maybe shy or not willing to talk all about holidays or whatever to get entry into more (I think it was all aesthetic and I did even try the political stuff which must have been really taxing to listen to lol!)
At the same time, I didn't know him much and without being cruel I didn't really enjoy or see need for barber (for my type hair cut then) and wanted to save money for something quite overkill for something to grow back so fast so it is a hard balance which I think money ignores from 'how much it costs' rather than SEEING what we need and seeing my Greek neighbour as a man needing to live without these kinds of effect and his skill dying out and in arts in general expecting people to move on perhaps in other dying skillsets...
Better if it wasn't always so heavy in this narrow minded money way of money or doing just 1 thing. Because machines replace man and that could be good but if we base things on the wrong things (like profit and most effective % back to government) then we'll soon lose every skill but the basic industrial line type stuff and the essentials which haven't yet got automated (lorry truck driving, glueing things etc)
People in the village or towns still go but probably less and less or just women / longer haired people maybe for certain things.
My dad was even colouring my mum hair lol.
TLDR It's a terrible balance of DIY (saves time and labour) BUT not giving other people things to do.
All this dying out encourages community to die (if not already).
So it's something I'd like to have an answer for...
Do you have any advices apart from 'get another job' ?
Money as the heavy middle makes decision making worse ... as that is part of the killing of things / a devaluing currency itself etc.
And money / cost perspective ties itself to all other decision making almost. But I want to try a middle way too... why to keep diversity?
A bit of money would even be "ok" IF THE AIM was to *allow* good / basic / sustainable machines to be spread and allow others to do hair cuts as a skill or even as the social glue without money-measurement and the life and death ultimatum of it all (which is again ultimately for taxing us in everything in each "job" / activity every minute of the day). Even in buying items we're paying more %'s for the overall structure which doesn't really go back it, the structure is s overall a profit-cost program where extra goes to managers not us workers/customers!
Often the core problem is putting any money value (bank-money) on any art because that makes it narrow minded but yea "people need to eat" as the formula for getting people to do thigns they don't want a lot (and often artists starve for it especially political ones)
Devaluing what we like to do, devaluing currency (representative of debt issued at time of lending) devalues the life of arts itself...
Asking "how much a person's work is worth" will get us into trouble almost like saying "how much is a person worth" and it's basically priceless or undefined / without attached definition other than "amazing wonderful people"...
If we work within that framing 'somehow' sustaining all life to have it as diverse as possible (maybe) while providing the basics (which all seems impossible) then maybe enjoying things can come back into the frame (not just having intense weekends of 'relaxing')
And considering how we got to this point now and how do things we could increment to more of a balanced value on people first and keep many things the same / less profit orientated and decrement the bad machines too... (maybe all of it is bad?)
Anyway the aim is to less devalue arts and skill and let people live!!!
I know some of the things naturally die out too like my barbers or parents, even the tree a farmer has to pull out occasionally but not all of it in exchange for scarce cash!...
🤷 A hard balance. 🤷
Final word:
Right we're paying more %'s for the overall structure which doesn't really go back us
WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING / give other's in work PROBABLY ON THE FEDIVERSE since there's no money in many things healthy nowadays so maybe we could keep our own values and give/take what we can as often as possible and have more healthy channels of money. 🤷 💰