Amazon to replace 600,000 workers with robots. Trump to legalize pot. Low voter turnout possible next election?

Photo above – Rumors have it that Jeff Bezos is firing 600,000 Amazon workers, and hiring robots. Gort 2.0 is under consideration to become the Admiral on Bezos flagship yacht “Koru”.

I tried to do the math here. The average Amazon worker makes over $20 an hour. Pickers a little less, drivers a little more. You’re all fired, according to the link below. Bezos plans on hiring an army of robots. Probably from Elon Musk. Or maybe China? In any case, 600,000 workers times $20 an hour times 40 hours a week, times 52 weeks a year is . . . $25 billion!!!

Wait . .. is that right? Well some pickers work less than 40 hour weeks. Some drivers score massive overtime. Then there’s the health plan, free tuition. Let’s just agree that $25 billion is the low end of the range, okay?

Since half America pays no income taxes, let’s assume pickers are in that pleasant paradise, so there’s no hit to America’s income tax haul. But the amount of Social Security taxes collected will dive. Employees will contribute $1.8 billion less, and Amazon’s matching obligation of $1.8 billion will also go away. Can you see the Social Security Trust fund evaporating even faster, like that Antarctic glacier losing 100 million tons of ice every year?

None of this will cause riots in the streets though. In any case, legalized pot would mitigate some of the pain. If new federal regulations supersede state and local ones, there goes another tax bonanza. California is already in crisis. The 732 pot dispensaries in LA alone are behind $400,000 million in their taxes to the state and county. If DC creates a national pot policy, you can bet that home-growing will take off like gangbusters, and all that anticipated dispensary revenue disappears in a puff of smoke.

This is not a hit piece on Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, or Netflix, which is sure to reap a subscriber bonanza from all this (buy alert – NFLX. Yesterday’s close $1,100 a share; market cap $500 billion). Robots have been marching towards us forever, and substance abuse is at near record highs even without pot legalization.

Rather, this is an explanation about why the federal deficit is only going to get worse. It went past $38 trillion yesterday as Trump demolished half the White House to make way for a new ballroom, paid for by either Bezos or Musk or China, depending on who you believe. Without people working steady jobs, paying income taxes and social security taxes we’re probably doomed. In addition to Netflix and pot, they’ll also probably be eligible for welfare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, section 8 subsidized housing, student loan forgiveness, and in the future Universal Basic Income.

Well, we’re not gonna just let 'em starve in the streets, are we? And thanks for shopping at Amazon on Prime Day, this month. Please post a review of what you bought.

I’m just sayin’ . . .



Amazon to Replace 600,000 Americans With Robots—Leaked Docs Plan Biggest Job Cut in US History

Dialing down dope: Trump White House moves toward easing restrictions on marijuana