Bakers are useful members of society. It makes sense that they exist. A society without bakers would not be more efficient.
People could all make their own breads, if they had more times, but it'd require more ovens working simultaneously instead of fewer big ovens. It would also take more time for humanity, collectively. And even if everyone had a big oven like those in bakeries, while they could make big stocks of bread for a long time, this would result in everyone eating bread of lesser quality because bread goes bad with time. Having a skilled minority cooking a lot of bread every day in big ovens is just better.
This is not an ode to capitalism or any specific economic system, socialist or communist systems can have bakers to, I guess, tho the ownership of bakeries and boss-employee relationship between them must be rethought or abolished in these cases. All I'm saying is, when thinking up a new and revolutionary economic system, one must always account for bakers.
And sure, robots could bake, maybe. But I don't think they should. Or rather, I think human-made bread and pastries should always exist, because they create variatons and originalities that are interesting. And if human-made bread becomes a luxury commodity and the common people only have access to robot bread, this'd be a tragedy, so better keep the djinni in a bottle and not let robots bake.
Robots do bake. Actually, a lot of the food you eat is partly made by machines. It's how we aren't all starving right now, and why famines are so much less common. As good as handmade bread is, it couldn't feed 8 billion people. We have bread loaves in the supermarket made by machines, and we are better off for it.
You can get robots that make bread. They're called bread makers. My parents have one. It's pretty neat to set it in the evening and have fresh bread ready in the morning, even if the bread it makes is not that great.
Why does this devolve into capitalism vs socialism? We should be free to make bread and sell it, and earn a profit if there's a market for it. The buyer wants the bread more than they want the money. Everyone wins.
I'm not gonna lie I love the whole "think about the bakers" statement, because that can be extrapolated to a lot of different professions. But my dude, what about AI powered robots that can make all those different human variations. Being able to get crunchy or soft versions of x or y bread. Fluffy or thick. It'd be amazing honestly.
i see no big scale need for bakers. i think all people that WANT to be bakers should be able to be bakers and get by. but best way to produce bread are bread factories. big scale more efficient.
i like it. most people do in fact. most bakeries here are chains that produce in central factories, ship out frozen and the product is the same as in super markets. there are very few actual bakeries where you pay 2-4 times the money for real fresh baked bread. so why bother.
Bread and baked goods in general aren't a staple in all cultures. But sure, point taken. Specialization is often a pretty nice benefit of civilization.