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Last Friday, Elon Musk tweeted a grand unifying theory for Americas path to prosperity. We need to shift people from low- to negative-productivity jobs in government to high-productivity jobs in manufacturing, he wrote on X, combining DOGEs Rapture-style approach to downsizing the federal workforce and the supposed reshoring goals of Trumps tariffs. Musk is so fond of this theory, in fact, he has tweeted some variation of it at least eight times since November’s election. All that repetition, however, has not yet rendered the logic behind the concept any more sound. Musks belief that the DOGE firings will create a manufacturing labor force conveniently disregards so many contradictions, no amount of tweeting could make it any less absurd. He might as well whisper the plan into a seashell. For starters, classifying all government positions as “low- to negative-productivity jobs” in contrast with factory workers is a gross generalization. Whether its inspired by Musks boundless contempt for Big Government or just a product of his startup-world efficiency mindset, its wildly off base. If it were true, the FDAs health regulators, who review medical devices and tobacco products, wouldnt be struggling in the absence of their recently laid-off coworkers, which they are. The remaining IRS agents wouldnt be predicting tax compliance will fall this year due to people trying to slip more risky filings past a slashed workforce, which they might. And even if Musk were indeed right about the government employing far more loafers than the average business, if DOGE had any real insight into which workers were the worst offenders, they wouldnt repeatedly scramble to hire back fired workers, which they have. Looking through the lens of Musks “low- to negative-productivity” assessment clarifies why he may have demanded federal employees send emails listing five things they accomplish each week. In this light, the weekly dispatch becomes an effort to prove a vast productivity deficitas though a smoothly functioning government wasnt proof of the opposite. Taking a giant leap, though, and assuming Musk has correctly diagnosed as terminally unproductive almost everyone in Human Health Services, the Social Security Administration, and other crucial departments, why are those specific people prime candidates for the manufacturing sector? Some of the many newly unemployed government accountants, analysts, and researchers will find other work easily. Others may struggle to land their next jobs. The chances are less than slim, though, that a majority of them will have nowhere to go but a hypothetical iPhone factory in Milwaukee. It seems like a misguided revenge fantasy against members of the regulating agencies Musk has long complained about throttling innovation, from the Securities and Exchange Commission (FEC) to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Now, he canat least in theorycondemn some of those agencies white-collar workers to lives of manual labor. Relatively few Americans, though, actually want to work in a factory. According to the Financial Times, recent polling shows that 80% of Americans think the country would be better off with more manufacturing jobs, but only 25% of Americans think that they, personally, would be better off in such jobs. (Good news for everyone who makes up that 25%: The U.S. currently has more open manufacturing jobs than it can fill.) Just for arguments sake, though, assuming a significant number of laid-off government workers either did want manufacturing jobs or had no viable alternatives, there is no guarantee that the Great Reshoring will ever come to pass. As much as insiders like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appear convinced Trumps tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back, others are skeptical of whether thats even the goal. Senator Chris Murphy, for instance, recently told Fast Company that he thinks Trump is using tariffs to force industries and companies to come bend the knee to him and cut deals with him that benefit him politically. Considering it might take years for companies to establish the necessary infrastructure for domestic manufacturing, and in an environment where economic policy often seems dictated on a whim, companies may seek alternate workarounds for the tariffs. Faced with the prospect of moving manufacturing to America, many companies will simply diversify manufacturing out of China. Apple, for instance, has been moving more and more iPhone production from China to India and Vietnam over the past year, and Walmart has been sourcing more from India as well. Smaller companies grappling with the current 145% tariffs on China will likely follow suit. Playing devils advocate, though, lets assume a sizable portion of U.S. companies do commit to reshoring and that thousands of former government workers show up at those HR offices, hat in hand. A lot of those high-productivity jobs in manufacturing that Musk is fond of mentioning are already earmarked for AI. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed as much last week during an appearance on Tucker Carlsons show. Asked by the host whether the U.S. has the necessary labor force for a hypothetical transition back into mnufacturing, Bessent said the following: I think we do. I think with AI, with automation, with so many of these factories . . . theyre going to be smart factories. I think weve got all the labor force we need. Nothing makes Musks line about shifting government workers to high-productivity jobs seem more like a sneering troll than Bessent claiming U.S. factory jobs are the province of robots. Perhaps its time Musk shifted to a higher probability pipe dream.
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E-Commerce
Starbucks baristas will soon have a new dress code that’s meant to center the coffee chain’s signature brand color. Beginning May 12, employees will be required to wear solid black tops along with bottoms that are khaki, black, or blue denim under the coffee chain’s longtime signature-green apron. Starbucks Green is a rich, earthy green that appears in Starbucks partner aprons going back to 1987, and it’s also the color of its well-known Siren logo. The company calls the color its “most identifiable asset,” and by putting the color at the center of its new dress code, the coffee chain is extending its brand guidelines around Starbucks Green to employee dress as the company undergoes a broader overhaul. Starbucks says the change will improve consistency across stores. Starbucks Green is used by the coffee chain in signage and other physical and digital assets alongside a palette of complementary secondary accent greens and tertiary colors that rotate seasonally, according to its online brand guide, which it published in 2019. It’s a color palette that’s distinctly Starbucks, with green at the center and other earthy and occasional floral accent colors. When it comes to the aprons, though, Starbucks now wants its green set against just black. Starbucks baristas’ tops can be short- or long-sleeved crewnecks and collared or button-up shirts, but they must be solid black. Starbucks said it was also launching a line of company-branded T-shirts. Its employees can receive two of the branded shirts at no cost, according to the company. The move prioritizes a unified consumer experience across touch points as the brand seeks a back-to-basics approach to grow back its sales. It has also introduced changes such as bringing back handwritten notes on coffee cups, ceramic mugs for beverages ordered to stay, and a scaled-back menu. “By updating our dress code, we can deliver a more consistent coffeehouse experience that will also bring simpler and clearer guidance to our partners, which means they can focus on what matters most, crafting great beverages and fostering connections with customers,” Starbucks said in a press release. Research has found standardized employee dress can reinforce a company culture of teamwork and unity. In addition to presenting the brand’s signature color in a consistent way, the updated Starbucks dress code could have an impact on organizational and employee management. (The policy update has received some criticism on Reddit and TikTok, however.) Starbucks’s dress code has changed over time. In 2014, it relaxed requirements for employees to tuck in their black-and-white uniforms and cover up tattoos to allow for untucked shirts, visible tattoos, shorts, skirts, and black jeans. The new dress code is designed to “allow our iconic green apron to shine,” Starbucks said in a press release, as well as give employees clearer guidance about dress standards and make the customer experience more similar from store to store. The new dress code is more restrictive but par for the course for many branded service industry jobs. For example, Walmart associates wear blue and Target team members wear red. Starbucks partners wearing green on black is meant to reinforce the company’s most recognizable creative asset, its brand color, and reintroduce Starbucks to customers in a consistent way no matter where they visit.
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E-Commerce
Could it be any clearer that Sam Altman intends for OpenAI to be a sprawling consumer tech company, not just an AI lab? His public comments certainly suggest as much. Today, The Verge reported that OpenAI has been working on an internal prototype of a social network that would let people share their AI-generated images. OpenAI began as a fairly rudderless little AI lab back in 2015. We literally had no idea we were ever going to become a companylike, the plan was to put out research papers, Altman said in a recent Stratechery interview. But there was no product, there was no plan for a product, there was no revenue, there was no business model, there were no plans for those things. ChatGPT changed everything. The AI chatbot took off like a rocket when it was quietly released to the public in late November 2022, soaring to 100 million users within weeksfaster than any consumer app in history. At the time, OpenAI was making some money by selling API access to its early models. But ChatGPT turned OpenAI into a consumer tech company. You simply dont second-guess numbers like that. And the growth hasnt stopped. Something like 10% of the world uses our systems now a lot, Altman said on April 11 at a TED eventa figure that implies OpenAI has around 800 million users. Thats why the company has been so busy adding new features and services to ChatGPT, now a household name. Its added internet search, image generation, and deep research capabilities, with more surely on the way. In his Stratechery interview, Altman even floated the idea of OpenAI offering something other tech giantsApple, Google, Metaalready provide: a single sign-on for the web. [W]e have this idea that you sign in with your OpenAI account to anybody else that wants to integrate the API, and you can take your bundle of credits and your customized model and everything else anywhere you want to go, Altman told Stratecherys Ben Thompson. And I think thats a key part of us really being a great platform. This vision ties neatly into Altmans social network ambitions. Facebook parlayed its dominance into a single sign-on system that allowed it to follow users around the web, collecting data on the sites they visited and what they did there. OpenAI could similarly leverage a social network and single sign-on to gather valuable data to train future AI models. (OpenAI didnt immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment.) There are other signs of Altmans ambition to broaden OpenAIs scopeincluding hardware. The company is reportedly considering acquiring Io Products, a hardware startup cofounded by Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive. The startup is developing a personal AI device designed to know all about the user and help with daily tasks. (Altman and OpenAI are also reportedly exploring designing their own AI chip, following in the footsteps of Amazon, Apple, and Google.) But much of OpenAIs time and energy in the coming years will likely be spent growing its breakout product, ChatGPT, into a full-fledged AI-first tech platform. I really believe in this product suite, Altman told Thompson. I think that if we execute really well, five years from now, we have a handful of multibillion user products.
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E-Commerce
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