Episode 92: The Responsibility-Erasing Catch-all of 'Automation'
Citations Needed30 Loka 2019

Episode 92: The Responsibility-Erasing Catch-all of 'Automation'

"As technology shifts more layoffs loom at tech companies," Reuters tells us. "PepsiCo is laying off corporate employees as the company commits to millions of dollars in severance pay, restructuring, and 'relentlessly automating'," notes Business Insider. "Apple's dismissal of 200 self-driving car employees points to a shift in its AI strategy," CNBC declares.

For decades, mass layoffs, factory closures, and industry shifts––from the auto industry to journalism to banking––have often been presented by American media, not as the moral choices of greedy CEOs private equity and hedge fund managers looking to extract wealth for them and their shareholders, but instead the unavoidable result of nebulous, ill-defined––but entirely inevitable–– "automation."

After all: C-level decision makers, billionaire media owners, hedge funds, and private equity firms had no choice. No one is to blame, it's simply the way it is. The logical, albeit cruel, end result of specific policy choices, all decided by powerful moral agents over the past 30 years, is presented as a force of nature, something outside our control, unstoppable and immutable.

On this episode, we examine how capital has, for centuries, blamed layoffs and cost cutting on inscrutable developments in technology and efficiency models out of their control, what this pat excuse hides, why it's sometimes true and sometimes not, and and why the media shouldn't take claims of CEOs' hands being forced by "market changes" at face value.

We are joined by Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and writer and researcher Peter Frase.

Jaksot(367)

News Brief: How Decades of Media Distortions and Lies about "Iran's Nuclear Program" Lead to War

News Brief: How Decades of Media Distortions and Lies about "Iran's Nuclear Program" Lead to War

In this News Brief, we discuss a recent poll showing 70% of Americans are fundamentally wrong about the nature of Iran's "nuclear program"—including 1 in 4 who think Iran currently possesses a nuclear...

25 Maalis 34min

"Shadow Fleets," Sanctions & Western Media's International Law-ification of Arbitrary US Dictates

"Shadow Fleets," Sanctions & Western Media's International Law-ification of Arbitrary US Dictates

In this episode, we explore how arbitrary—often unilateral—sanctions against Enemy States are given the halo of international legal legitimacy with a combination of lies, slippery language and brainle...

11 Maalis 1h 22min

News Brief: As Trump Crushes Academia, the NYT and Atlantic Still Fight 'Woke' Wars from 5 Years Ago

News Brief: As Trump Crushes Academia, the NYT and Atlantic Still Fight 'Woke' Wars from 5 Years Ago

In this News Brief, we are joined by Chenjerai Kumanyika and Todd Wolfson of the American Association of University Professors to discuss Trump's gutting of higher education, its expansion on previous...

18 Helmi 45min

Ep 234: TikTok, Gen Z's Move to Social Media and Elite Panic Over Unsanctioned News

Ep 234: TikTok, Gen Z's Move to Social Media and Elite Panic Over Unsanctioned News

In this episode, we examine our political class' TikTok neurosis, how Gaza fueled its sell to US and Israeli military contractors, and the long history of elite panics around unsanctioned information ...

4 Helmi 1h 13min

News Brief: ICE, Senate Dems' Counterinsurgency PR, and the Limits of Body Cam Liberalism

News Brief: ICE, Senate Dems' Counterinsurgency PR, and the Limits of Body Cam Liberalism

In this News Brief, we detail the fundamental problems with Senate Democrats' cosmetic reforms, the strategy of letting outrage blow over and the conspicuous absence of any proposal that touches ICE's...

30 Tammi 39min

Ep 233: How US Media Naturalizes Capital Strikes and Helps the Rich Undermine Democracy

Ep 233: How US Media Naturalizes Capital Strikes and Helps the Rich Undermine Democracy

In this episode, we examine how billionaires and corporations threatening capital strikes and capital flight to discipline populist politicians and movements is treated as normal, obvious, and healthy...

28 Tammi 1h 24min

News Brief: As Dem Leadership Waffles—Labor, Organizers, Immigrants Fight Back in Minneapolis

News Brief: As Dem Leadership Waffles—Labor, Organizers, Immigrants Fight Back in Minneapolis

In this News Brief, we break down Dem leadership's fatuous "body cam" and "training" response to ICE brutality, and how organizers in the Twin Cities are not settling for cosmetic reform. With guest J...

22 Tammi 43min

News Brief: For Media Reporting on Iran, Trump Suddenly Morphs into Pro-Democracy Humanitarian

News Brief: For Media Reporting on Iran, Trump Suddenly Morphs into Pro-Democracy Humanitarian

In this News Brief, we discuss mainstream media coverage of ongoing protests across Iran and how nearly every major Western outlet has been uncritically framing any potential regime change plans by th...

17 Tammi 25min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

uutiscast
aikalisa
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
politiikan-puskaradio
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
tervo-halme
rss-podme-livebox
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
otetaan-yhdet
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
rss-asiastudio
the-ulkopolitist
aihe
rikosmyytit
rss-merja-mahkan-rahat
rss-kaikki-uusiksi
rss-hyvaa-huomenta-bryssel
rss-vain-talouselamaa
rss-polikulaari-pitka-kiekko-ja-muut-ts-podcastit
rss-raha-talous-ja-politiikka