...but nobody took it seriously.
Sudden entries into the "find out" phase of human discovery.
This week, we look back on the (First?) Great Smokeout of 2023, forward to the dawn of underground fast food delivery, and warily at Barbie’s hostile takeover of world markets for pink paint.
I’m AJ Freeman, and “This Was a Real Job.”
This Week in Work: Where There’s Smoke…
Employees across the East Coast of the US are learning of late what West Coast workers have had to work around for some time…a critical element of the employment environment is the actual environment.
Last week’s news cycle was dominated by the fallout from an early start to fire season in North America…not that anyone needs a marked decrease in local air quality reported to them by a journalist. The acrid plume of smoke from Canada affected hundreds of millions across the Northeastern Megalopolis and beyond, daring to cross international boundaries without so much as a visa application.
For most, it was just the story of the week…after all, the smoke around all the most expensive real estate has mostly dissipated and that’s definitely the last Canadian wildfire of the summer, so no need to talk about that any more.
On the other hand, in the minds of the people paid the most to keep an eye on these things, it’s more indicative of an ongoing trend.
For example, the recent spate of insurance companies pulling out of California (the world’s 5th largest economy, as we are so often reminded) citing wildfire risk and construction costs is a stark indicator of plummeting confidence in the predictablity—and thus, insurability—of the future.
The message here is very clear: State Farm and Allstate no longer want to sell insurance policies in California because people will actually need them.
I suppose it’s an easy opinion to hold when you’ve never really had much of anything to insure, but from the consumer side I’ve always found most insurance to be a fairly bad gamble. It’s akin to buying a ticket to a raffle you can only ever win in the case of a life-altering disaster.
I’m sure it does deliver a sense of security for many of those who hold it, but if you ever have a chance, talk to a Hurricane Katrina survivor about the benefits of a business model that de-incentivizes making payouts.
These aren’t just headlines either…they have real life impact on everyday people. Decades ago, in 2018, I had a client in California…worked on the weekly newsletter for his company (a gig which AI has since relieved me of, and there you have a pretty big part of the origin story for “This Was a Real Job).
His primary residence burned to the ground in that year’s record wildfires. Of course, having plenty to lose, he had an extensive insurance policy that effectively covered all his losses…but that was decades ago, in 2018.
In the Interesting Times currently unfolding around us, the standard of living for my well-off client would have gone up in flames with the tufted sectional in his Northern California study…he would likely have been relegated to his summer home on the coast indefinitely.
Imagine how much worse it would be for someone living in one or fewer homes.
As all these things relate to the Great Smokeout of 2023, the fact is that it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the tangible effects of climate breakdown, even in Very Serious Discussions such as the scheduling of baseball games…it’s a weird juxtaposition to be advised not to exercise outdoors then turn on the TV and see professional athletes exerting themselves to the fullest in a toxic haze.
In a world where sportsfolk can take out policies on their most valuable body parts, how long into our foggy future until lung insurance becomes something we talk about? How long after that will these policies not be issued in certain regions due to the elevated insurance risk, and therefore top league talent functionally unavilable to the local ballclub?
Even a sports franchise leaving town because they can no longer secure insurance for their facilities in the area would be a real wakeup call…after the last few years, we found out for a fact that the only thing that seems to clue most people in to the severity of a crisis is when it ripples through sport.
Of course, the entire country won’t be waking up to ash and dust every day forever…but it sure seems like the concept of insuring against risk will need an honest re-examinination in an era that is steadily racheting up the risk on any sort of stability.
Those who regularly read the news to gain a better understanding of the Interesting Times around them are often told to “go outside” and “touch grass,” but in the face of climate chaos it’ll become increasingly tricky to do either.
Sure, places like Florida will probably be fine—after all, the state government apparently has the spare cash to fly migrants all over the country, we can only assume the economic future is rosy there—but other areas of the country can only watch nervously and wonder whether the next uninsurable headlines will emanate from their neck of the woods.
Like I said, I don't have a dog in this fight (can't afford the pet insurance) but at least from where I’m sitting, it sure seems like the moneymongers are saying there are even more Interesting Times in our near future.
On the bright side, it’ll probably be the most normal summer we have for a while.
Maybe Update Your Resume: McJobbers?
Remember those quaint days where everybody lucky enough to transcend the paper hat class on their way up the corporate ladder smugly insisted that “low-skill” jobs like these would be some of the first widely automated?
Well, those white-collar midwits were sort of right…they just didn’t figure they’d be out of a job before the kid at the coffee kiosk.
That’s right, that day we’ve been anticipating since the debut of Flippy is finally here…fast food heavyweight Wendy’s is officially the first of the major national chains to fully embrace AI, rolling out its “FreshAI” to take orders at a few select high-volume restaurants.
The innovation doesn’t stop there…in a breathless press release which you can also waste time reading if you desire, the company prattles on about digital platforms and pickup portals, including—seriously, y’all—an underground autonomous robot pickup system to be unveiled later this year.
To accomplish these lofty goals, they have partnered with tech company Pipedream, which is sure going to sound weird in future investor disclosures if all does not go to plan with the subterranean delivery service.
Back in the real world, the decision by Wendy’s to push their chips in on AI near-future will have immediate effects on the employment environment.
Without a doubt, the introduction of costless labor will require that fewer human beings be hired and paid by one of the US’ larger employers…but hey, like they say, these fast food jobs are for high school kids (which does make it weird that the restaurants are open during the day and on school nights, but it’s not my argument) so who cares I guess.
Some difficulty with customer uptake in practice is also expected, as many of the same people who walk into a restaurant expecting to outsource the preparation of a sandwich while calling those who will prepare it “unskilled” are also less than adept with any technology that debuted after the Cold War.
Nevertheless, the benefits are obvious. With fewer employees to compensate in the burger joint of tomorrow, lower overall expenses will obviously result in additional executive compensation lower prices for fast food fans so that’s good.
In fact, this news from Wendy’s shows that tomorrow is already here…just pair up a robot arm designed to flip infinite patties with a cashier that never needs a smoke break and you have the vast majority of fast food functions covered.
There’s a distinct possibility that by this time next year, the only people in your local fast food place will be the cleanup crew mopping up the latest TikTok challenge.
…plus probably a greeter or two, somebody’s gotta help these low-skilled consumers figure out touch screen ordering yeah?
Color Commentary: Pretty (Expensive) in Pink
By now, any interested observer knows about the so-called “pink tax,” that mysterious effect that gives two identical razors sitting side by side on a pharmacy shelf totally different prices.
Childhood manufacturer Mattel knows very well that there’s a lot of money in painting things pink…so much so, in fact, that the production of the upcoming Barbie moviewiped out a company’s global supply of pink paint. Said production designer Sarah Greenwood with a straight face, “the world ran out of pink.”
For added insight on how the production of a single film could drain select elements of the visible light spectrum out of the entire planet, it is instructive to consider the scale of this project. The Barbieland set used in the movie includes the titular Barbara’s three-story dream home, her pink convertible, and other props that are traditionally sold separately.
The short supply of pink paint, as with other colors spotlighted in the Color Commentary section of my “Real Job,” can be attributed to simple black and white reality according to NPR. Rosco, the company that manufactures film-grade paint for this type of production, was not only impacted by pandemic-era supply chain issues, but also suffered extensive damage to raw materials stored in its Texas-based production facilities during that state’s deep freeze of 2021.
Just goes to show that no one gets to ignore our shared circumstances for too long…even a life in plastic made fantastic can be impacted by short supplies.
Now, far be it from me to criticize a production striving for “authentic artificiality” in a finished product…as an adamant absurdist, I find that sentence just too damn amusing ever to be upset about.
Instead, what I’ll draw focus to is the permanent increase in pink paint prices glossed over in these headlines. Like, it’s not as though the release of the film clears some clog of pink paint supplies…”Barbie” evidently used up every particle of pink paint on the planet, as well as the raw materials used to make it.
That means that the next time you, the average artist, reach out for your favorite pink paint, it may not be available. For years. Because of Barbie props.
Yup.
Of course, the idea that the world could “run out of” a color is pure clickbait, intended to get you to pay far more attention to a piece of media than you otherwise would…but hey, it worked on me and I took notes, please subscribe to my “64 to Infinity” Substack for a weekly deep dive into our favorite colors.
Hope Spot: Nazi Punks Bugger Off
Growing up in the US gives you some pretty weird default angles on things. Like, one time in a discussion of the old country’s concealed carry permits a Brit asked why anyone would have the need to conceal a firearm in the first place.
To this day I don’t have an answer to that question that satisfies me.
It’s the kind of perspective you can only see from the outside, and I had another of those moments recently with the announcemnt of sweeping new legislation out of Australia banning the display of Nazi imagery in public.
What would be unimaginable to many Americans is common sense elsewhere.
Now, to be fair, I do see the counterpoint about having clearly labeled enemies…some elements of a person’s chosen presentation can be ample warning to avoid them entirely. However, I still believe in the harm reduction done when we de-normalize symbols of hate by removing them from public life.
What I couldn’t possibly give the foremost fuck about is anyone quacking about free speech and freedoms and such in the wake of this decision.
Sure, Neo-Nazis are essentially being told by the federal government of Australia to shut up and go home, but a few decades back people responded to the presence of Nazis by shooting them where they stood to public cheers so I still say it’s a lot more civil than it could be.
Besides, the right to free speech in the US only ever kinda existed…the concept of charges such as “slander” helps illustrate this reality…how many among us have the time, money, and resources to address a percieved slight to our character in the legal arena? These personal protections are exclusively for the wealthy…think about it, if “money is speech” don’t the rich get way more to say?
To we Yanks, the right to talk shit is so sacrosanct that it goes right before the right to unlimited ammo, but the right to espouse deadly rhetoric is not freedom. Allowing these ideas and the symbols that spread them to fester in our discourse without social penalty actually runs counter to the truest ideals of freedom.
You see, freedom is the right for all members of a society to live in dignity.
You don’t achieve that effect by permitting the display a flag that exclusively stands for upheaval and exclusion, that was designed for and dedicated to the task of maximizing misery for “dissimilar” people. That is not freedom.
No, you can’t stop people from feeling any way in particular, but you can use the of law to help minimize the impact of their hateful beliefs on the public sphere…and any modernized society should be actively working to do this.
With this latest legislation, Australia appears to be doing just that…it’s a bright spot in an increasingly cloudy future. Great job, y’all.