Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[3fingers]

It seems like the things we're being encouraged to do for ourselves are related to consumption rather than production. Wonder why that is? Watch "The Matrix," especially the scene with the vast battery farm of human beings sealed in tubes providing energy to service the machines. The consumption-driven society is the machine. We're nothing more than the batteries.

Yes I believe that you are correct. I hadn't been able to put it into a succinct thought like you have here. I have been trying to contribute as small an amount of current flow to the machine as possible for some years now with varying success. Or at least direct the energy in a direction to do the least harm. The battle continues.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the ultimate goal should be to redefine "progress." It won't happen in my lifetime, but eventually it'll have to happen. A society built on the idea of progress thru infinitely increasing consumption is like a chain letter. It might sound convincing, but it's mathematically impossible to sustain. A few people will make out great, but the billions at the bottom will die long before their names reach the top of the list.

 

[Trenchfriend]

People without mobile-phone, like me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When your 79-year-old mother is nagging you to get a cell phone and you criticize her for her addiction to the stupid thing, you know you're living in a world that's seriously out of kilter.

 

[tonyb]

DDT... it had a unique smell all its own. I think it was my nasal membranes mutating. Pic's from the late 60's Korea - I was the fool taking pictures of my co-workers and breathing the gas. Obviously, the only remedy that cut the taste was alcohol.

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Among my early memories are of the trucks putting out clouds of that stuff. As I recall, we took absolutely zero precautions against exposure to it.

 

[ChazfromCali]

The biggest threat to low paid, unskilled jobs is A.I. These 'small' jobs may not be rewarding, glorious or easy but they do allow a large number of poorly educated people to earn some kind of living. Slave driving enterprises like the Amazon warehouses are already using robots to perform a lot of the tasks that were until recently, done by human workers. As artificial intelligence contraptions evolve & replace human jobs, it's unlikely the western world will ever know full employment again, which poses another problem about what to do with the unemployed & unemployable. Did somebody mention Soylent green ?

Yesterday I saw a news article about Mal-Wart trying out automated floor-polishers. I imagine their bean counters crunch the numbers down to several decimal places for anything they can save a buck on.

The curb feelers/cat whiskers on car fenders were a great idea. It's been years since I've seen that. Never had any myself but it's a handy little add-on.

 

[ChazfromCali]

The biggest threat to low paid, unskilled jobs is A.I. These 'small' jobs may not be rewarding, glorious or easy but they do allow a large number of poorly educated people to earn some kind of living. Slave driving enterprises like the Amazon warehouses are already using robots to perform a lot of the tasks that were until recently, done by human workers. As artificial intelligence contraptions evolve & replace human jobs, it's unlikely the western world will ever know full employment again, which poses another problem about what to do with the unemployed & unemployable. Did somebody mention Soylent green ?

Yesterday I saw a news article about Mal-Wart trying out automated floor-polishers. I imagine their bean counters crunch the numbers down to several decimal places for anything they can save a buck on.

The curb feelers/cat whiskers on car fenders were a great idea. It's been years since I've seen that. Never had any mysebut it's a handy little add-on.

 

[Fading Fast]

For the past five or so years, CVS had been putting in more and more self-checkout machines. But the most-recently opened one didn't have any, so I asked a manager I saw and he said CVS was moving away from them, at least in NYC. When I asked him why, unfortunately, he didn't know and didn't seem to care - he will not be running CVS some day.

 

[Nobert]

This is why I refuse to use "self checkouts" at stores unless there's no other option. I'd rather interact with a person any day of the week over a frigging machine that shines a monitor camera in my face and speaks in a metallic robot voice. It's like doing business with a Dalek.

-"Hi, you're new here, right? I'm Bonnie, the assistant floor manager. They said you were having some trouble with the register?"
-"This coupon fails to scan into the pro-cessor within the expected parameters! Explain! EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"
-"Oh, that happens sometimes with these manufacturer coupons. You just have to hit the 'Other Discount' button then choose that option on the screen there...and rescan! See?"
-"I obey!"
-"Hey, look I didn't mean to cause all this trouble, it's just a pack a fishsticks. I could wait until..."
-"Silence! The suggested retail price will be exterminated!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

YOU ARE LIZZIE! YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE CHECKOUTS!

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I think the ultimate goal should be to redefine "progress." It won't happen in my lifetime, but eventually it'll have to happen. A society built on the idea of progress thru infinitely increasing consumption is like a chain letter. It might sound convincing, but it's mathematically impossible to sustain. A few people will make out great, but the billions at the bottom will die long before their names reach the top of the list.

Indeed, our whole economy is based on increasing growth which simply means depleting the earths decreasing resources to produce ever more crap that no one needs but feel compelled to buy. For the first time in (human) history we have reached a point where we are using more of the earths resources than it can regenerate, in other words, we are demanding more from our planet than it can supply, which puts us on an unsustainable course. Since political leaders, business or us, the consumers, refuse to slow down our frenzied consumption, there is only one logical conclusion to our economical system. In the meantime, the rich will make hay while the sun shines, profiting from our excesses, though in the long term, their wealth may be of little use in the world that awaits us.

 

[Fading Fast]

I am aware and have read or watched many of the dystopian machines-will-rule-the-world or capitalism-will-eat-all-our-souls books and movies and sincerely doubt those are our futures.

While there are a lot of nagging inconveniences today - and I complain loudly about them in other threads - I don't feel any meaningful loss of freedom versus my parents - and in many ways have many more options and opportunities (while having lost some) - except in healthcare which only got worse for me since the government's last attempt to fix it.

I will not go on as it all gets purely political after that thought, but felt it fair to note that I don't buy into the dystopian futures so many believe is predestined. Could that happen - yes, but few here would like what I think increases that risk.

And while a checkout machine versus person can be seen as an instantiation of the machines-will-rule-the-world or capitalism-will-eat-all-our-souls visions, my guess, they are nothing more or less than one technology change that might alter things at the margin (like ATMs did going back to the '60s or typewriters did in the 1800s), but are not a signpost on a holistically horrible and unstoppable course.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Some people have to be bitten on the ass before they believe the beware of the dog sign.

 

[Fading Fast]

Some people have to be bitten on the ass before they believe the beware of the dog sign.

I have had several jobs eliminated (company gone out of business or department shut down) owing to downsizing and deteriorating business conditions related to technology advancements as trading desks (where my career started) have been decimated by electronic trading (some estimates say 90% of trading jobs have been eliminate over the last three decades - 90%!).

Then, as I reinvented myself as a portfolio manger, capitalism's creative destruction merged several companies (and several of my jobs) out of existence. Also, I've had my compensation cut more than once as profit compression from competition and technology-driven fee compression reduced our department's profits.

The dog has been chewing away at my butt for decades.

Edit add: Not surprisingly, I have had several periods of long unemployment and fear of losing my apartment and healthcare (got scarily close in the '90s) and have had close friends and family go through worse. I have had to move cities (not by choice) and take positions for meaningfully less pay than I had before (and adjust a never-luxurious lifestyle down accordingly).

The dog has drawn blood more than once. Sarcasm is easy - real life and thoughtful analysis is hard.

 

[tonyb]

I play the checkout game by the rules. If I have more than 15 items in the cart I don't use the express line. I have my loyalty card and debit card at the ready when I get to the head of the line. I help bag up my purchases if the baggers are stretched thin.

But please, don't try to direct me to the self checkout. I'd rather wait here for the checker.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I think the government needs to develop some really good drugs so people don't mind that they're unemployed, broke and hungry.

 

[Bushman]

I think the government needs to develop some really good drugs so people don't mind that they're unemployed, broke and hungry.

Reminds me of the movie THX 1138.

 

[3fingers]

I play the checkout game by the rules. If I have more than 15 items in the cart I don't use the express line. I have my loyalty card and debit card at the ready when I get to the head of the line. I help bag up my purchases if the baggers are stretched thin.

But please, don't try to direct me to the self checkout. I'd rather wait here for the checker.

Surprising how smoothly life goes most days if we play by the rules. Color outside the lines on your own time, but don't hold up the line.
BTW, mark me as another resister to the automated checkout. After the whole unpleasant experience, the machine immediately begins loudly declaring that I need to remove my purchases while I'm still trying to put them in a bag.
Phooey.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the government needs to develop some really good drugs so people don't mind that they're unemployed, broke and hungry.

The pharmaceutical industry is on it.

 

[tonyb]

I think the government needs to develop some really good drugs so people don't mind that they're unemployed, broke and hungry.

Some find that alcohol helps with that. But then, alcohol isn't a "drug," you know. Leastwise not in some people's judgment.

I'm reminded of the scene in "All in the Family" where Archie Bunker is discussing with Tommy Kelsey the purchase of Kelsey's Bar. Kelsey tells Archie there's no reason for a saloonkeeper to go hungry, seeing how people drink to celebrate in good times and drink to drown their sorrows in bad times.