The printing industry

Earlier this month I was talking with Uncle Dave, who is a retired bookbinder. He was telling me about how he used to work for a book publishing company, and his job was to apply glue to the bindings of the books. I wish I had asked him for more details about the job because now I find myself wondering if he actually applied the glue by hand with a brush, or if there was any kind of machinery involved to help him with the application process. I wonder what his reactions would be if I showed him the web to print storefront business website that I found that does so much of the work digitally and mechanically that used to be done by hand. Progress can be bittersweet sometimes. The conveniences are great, but sometimes the workforce has trouble adapting, and a lot of people end up underemployed, and that can cause a lot of hardship if the workforce is not properly retrained. Thankfully my Uncle Dave is retired, and not looking for a job, so that has not had a negative effect on him.