3-16-18

at the same time factories were slowly becoming more automated
slow because the machines were expensive and complicated to set up and needed fewer but more skilled workers
a new step in technology, numerically controlled machine tools, could translate engineering design to production

well paid, low-skill industrial and mining jobs were increasingly lost to automation

what does increased productivity give us?

• shorter work day and earlier retirement?
• fewer jobs?
• worse jobs?
  

1960s counterculture was in large part a revolt against uniformity and mass production

• lack of individuality
  
• waste & planned obsolescence
  
• commodity fetishism--the only value of work and useful things is money
• mass culture--imagine having only 6 TV channels and no internet
  

worker unrest
one alternative was dividing workers into teams, but it was more expensive