Automation and Employment

o   Automation and technology in Wall-E are heavily correlated – the people in Wall-E have become so heavily reliant on technology that they barely do anything for themselves – they let it run their daily lives on the Axiom, to the point that everyone has forgotten to look around and think for themselves. All jobs have been completely taken over by robots as well, and the humans within the Axiom don’t even walk, until the very end of the movie where they’re able to stand by themselves when the technology they’ve trusted starts to fail humanity and their future.

Workplace Changes

o   This subsection focused mainly on how a workplace is set up to boost productivity and management of employees. It weighted the pros and cons of working from home, both from an employee perspective and the company’s perspective as well as the benefits of monitoring schools and jobs with cameras and how software companies have been moving abroad to places like India. Since these are all related to human workers and employees, there wasn’t much to relate to Wall-e – about 99% of the workforce in the movie were robots, except for the captain of the Axiom, Captain B. McCrea, but even he does almost all of his tasks with the help of the technology and robots around him, which seem to have consisted simply of daily announcements, and waiting on news

 Globalization

o   “Is the process of creating a worldwide network of businesses and markets”

o   We can assume that Buy N Large somewhat globally dominated the market from the overconsumption the movie showed and the state of the Earth

o   Overall, pros of globalization is that they can create jobs for everyone and improve the standard of living across the globe. However, in places with low standards of living, there may not be laws that protect against child labor and such, which means people in developed countries who have their work rights protected are losing jobs to those who aren’t paid a decent living wage, all because companies can pay less for labor.

 The Digital Divide

o   This subsection focuses on how only a select few of society has access to modern technology – people with this technology will naturally have opportunities that those without do not. On a global scale, this has led to more industrialized countries vs less industrialized countries, and on a social scale, within a country this can create a difference of more wealthy regions and less wealthy regions. In relation to Wall-e, I’m sure those who were wealthy, had access to the internet, and lived in areas with an abundance of technology had a much better chance of getting to be on the Axiom verses those who didn’t. Additionally, wealthy countries are regions are more likely to overconsume and this was the center of the plot in Wall-E.

o   This chapter also talks about technological diffusion, which is the rate at which technology becomes normalized in society. For example, when a technology of any kind is first released, the price makes it only accessible by a select few, usually the wealthy, but as time goes on the price will decrease and the appearance of this technology in society increases. This likely was the case with robots in Wall-E – one day companies and society who had the money to moved over to using robots and technology in their business – for example, the robots on the Axiom that did makeup or security, and eventually completely took over and it became normalized in society, to the point humans on the Axiom have nothing to do but relax on the ship.

o   Net Neutrality is also a topic in this chapter – without net neutrality, telecommunication companies would have the power to block content, control the speed of transmissions and give faster speed of service to those who pay more. This topic is never directly brought up in Wall-e, but it is related to companies having the power to influence the average consumer’s life, like how Buy N Large completely changed the face of the planet which started with their consumers.

o   “Winner-Take-All” Society – the concept that the top select few will receive a large sum of success and rewards, like the 1%. Star-Athletes, famous musicians, and various other celebrities make millions from their work and success, while the average employee will make far less. The average employee’s pay has not increased as much as the average CEO’s wage. Overall, these effects are arguably bad for the economy because of the increase of the wealth gap between the rich and the poor. This can clearly be seen in Wall-E with Buy N Large – we don’t notice any other mention of a company but them – since they are a big name they are all the consumer knows and dominate every aspect of the consumer market. Ultimately, they have reduced all and any competition and the owner of Buy N Large which we see a few times in the movie, likely holds an abundance of wealth.