A headline about Amazon job losses popped up on numerous websites on Tuesday. A deeper dive into the story by Reuters suggested cuts may max out at 30,000 positions.
While those numbers are mammoth, it represents about four per cent of Amazon’s total employees worldwide. The paring down of staff at various companies is being blamed on shifting markets and the deployment of AI.
Those tech job losses add to tales of woe across the economy. While the auto sector had moved to robotics many years ago, its current malaise and shedding of jobs has more to do with politics and the repatriation of manufacturing jobs to American plants.
Change and the drive to efficiency may make companies more profitable, but is there a point of no return, industry and governments are missing? What happens when people don’t have gainful employment?
Sometimes we imagine a giant boardroom with the likes of Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Sundar Pichai (Alphabet) or Elon Musk (Tesla) as the presiding officer looking out onto a desk full of laptops. That bodiless room would make for a startling cartoon, but it is anything but funny.
This is where Canada needs sound policies and sensible steps to ensure the emerging economy includes opportunity for all.
ROI
It was a peculiar acronym for a bureaucrat to float in a meeting with federal officials a couple weeks back.
ROI – return on investment – is more of a business term than a government mantra. The premise is that money invested will lead directly to a profitable outcome.
Finding value on behalf of ratepayers is of course a noble pursuit, but believing all government decisions can be defined using a business metric is folly. At best, well-reasoned purchasing of goods and services will be reflected in an arrangement that is good for the public it serves and the business community providing said services. As one pragmatic bureaucrat of local fame likes to put it, “one hand washes the other.” There’s a lot of truth there.
Imagine for a moment if government programs were only viewed through the lens of ROI.
Subsidized housing? Long-term seniors care? Health care? Athletic arenas? Distilled down to dollars and cents, many of these aims would go unfulfilled.
The public has grown reliant on many of these services, and it is up to governments to find the best balance of value it can.
Let’s go Blue Jays
Game three ended after an 18-inning marathon Monday night.
There were a few blurry eyed patrons who waited up until nearly 3am for the stinging 6-5 loss.
This World Series run has attracted great attention. Even people that don’t generally follow baseball during the season are all on board. Interviews of fans tell a splendid tale of what the baseball club means to Canada.
Newcomers of every description talk about “their” Blue Jays and long-time fans reflect back on the 1993 win. The best part by far is the degree of patriotism demonstrated from coast to coast to coast.
Fingers crossed – let’s go Blue Jays.
