you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 48 points 8 months ago (24 children)

End users aren’t the customer.

  • source
  • hideshow 24 child comments
  • [–] 29 points 8 months ago (17 children)

    Yup, and there are a lot less bakers around now that machines do most of it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 17 child comments
  • [–] 21 points 8 months ago (16 children)

    No, I think there are fewer bakers.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 16 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (10 children)

    Is this a grammer thing? I'm fairly certain I can use "a lot less".

    Hmm nvm, I don't recognize the meme.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    It is a grammar thing. You can have a lot less of a non-count noun, like sand. But you have to have fewer of countable nouns, like loaves of bread, or bakers of bread

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

    This is a contested grammar rule that was based on one persons opinion in the late 1700s.

    There are plently of examples in history and modern usage where less and fewer are used interchangably. It is not a fixed part of english grammar as much as an "internet gotcha" that is commonly repeated.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Looks better though. I know it looks better because I grew up with the rule, but it does look better.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Personally I disagree. "Fewer" is more verbose than "less," so it just looks cumbersome to me in many instances.

    It also irks me a bit, because I know at least some of the instances I see are likely based on the above misunderstanding, not taste.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Non-countable? I think some vampires might disagree.

    I also thought Thor relevant but I can't find anything to support that.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    You can use "less" when it's a non-discrete plurality, such as water or sand (ignoring the technical fact that these can now be observed as discrete components below the macroscopic level) or money (the made-up kind, not necessarily the physical representations thereof). It's vastly more messy to have 1.78 bakers, and their families get really upset about it, so it's safer just to use "fewer."

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    Baking bread has gone from an everyday job employing a significant fraction of the workforce to more of an artistic job that only a few people do. Bakers don't really compete with mass produced bimbos, instead they offer a premium product for people who are willing to pay more.

    I think it's always like that when technologies get replaced. There are still people offering horse-drawn carriage rides, but it's a specialty service now instead of a common job. Same with many of the things you find on Etsy.

    Jobs being replaced by automation wouldn't be a bad thing if the benefits were shared with the whole population and there were a social safety net for people whose jobs were eliminated. Unfortunately, the benefits always go to the people at the top. Some theorists have proposed economic systems where there are no people at the top, or where things are shared much more fairly. It's a sad fact that those systems seem incompatible with human nature as it stands. Country-sized experimentation with anarchism or communism still leads to people at the top who take a lot more than they give. Those systems seem to work fine in small communities where everyone knows each-other. But, not when they are implemented in countries containing millions of people.

    The most effective systems right now seem to be mixed socialist / capitalist systems where unions are strong and willing to call major strikes and shut the country down. You still get "haves" and "have nots", but the "have nots" still get a voice and aren't completely trampled by the rich.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments