Turns out they thought ArcGIS cost the same as like Office or Acrobat, and they didn’t budget for it for the fiscal year that started 2 weeks before I started working.
ESRI is in the position that Microsoft and Adobe want to be in, a de-facto monopoly.
If automation really is the boon to society that we think it is, then buying out the displaced workers is a no-brainer. If, on the other hand, it’s really just a boon for the bourgeoisie, then fuck their automation. Automation will be liberatory or it will be bullshit.