• Tesla says Optimus is working on its factory floor.
• The company said in an X post that two of the humanoid robots had been deployed in a factory.
• Elon Musk has called Optimus Tesla's most valuable product, but it's still got a long way to go.

It sounds like Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot, may finally be helping to build the company's cars.

In a rundown on X of what the company has achieved since 2018 ahead of the shareholder vote on Elon Musk's multi-billion dollar pay package, Tesla said it had deployed two Optimus robots "performing tasks in the factory autonomously."

It is unclear which factory the robots are operating in or what tasks they are completing.

Business Insider contacted Tesla for confirmation but didn't immediately hear back.

In Tesla's most recent earnings call in April, Musk said Optimus would be able to perform factory roles by the end of the year, and could go on sale by the end of 2025.

Musk has made some grand predictions about Tesla's AI-powered humanoid, suggesting in the same earnings call that Optimus was more valuable than anything else Tesla is doing.

Musk told shareholders that once the "sentient humanoid robot" was a reality, there would be "no meaningful limit to the size of the economy."

Optimus has come a long way from a man in a robot suit, but still falls short of Musk's vision.

Tesla has released a series of videos showing the humanoid robot doing the squats, picking up an egg, and folding a shirt — although Musk later clarified that Optimus wasn't capable of doing the latter autonomously.

The billionaire faces competition in his mission to staff his factories with an army of automatons.

Tesla rival BMW signed a deal with robotics startup Figure in January that will see its robots deployed in the carmaker's South Carolina factory.

China's EV builders, which Elon Musk has identified as Tesla's greatest threat, are also experimenting with the technology.

Dongfeng Motors recently struck a deal with Chinese robotics firm Ubtech to deploy its robots on production lines. Nio has also piloted the use of Ubtech's "Walker S" humanoid robot.

• The EU has imposed tariffs of up to 38.1% on Chinese EVs. 
• Joe Biden also launched a crackdown on Chinese EVs last month, hitting them with a 100% tax.
• Trade barriers come amid fears a wave of cheap Chinese brands could take over Western markets. 

The EU is cracking down on China's EV companies.

The bloc will impose tariffs as high as 38.1% on EVs imported from China to Europe from next month, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

Tesla rivals BYD will face a tariff of 17.4%, Geely 20%, and SAIC Motor 38.1%. The EU previously had a 10% duty on imported EVs.

The European Commission launched an investigation into Chinese EVs last October, examining whether state subsidies in China were keeping the price of their electric vehicles artificially low.

Its conclusion comes after Joe Biden announced a sweeping set of tariffs in May on $18 billion worth of Chinese goods, including a 100% tax on Chinese vehicles.

Chinese-branded EVs have almost no presence in the US, thanks to existing trade barriers.

But in Europe, they have been making steady inroads, with Tesla rival BYD building a factory in Hungary and startups Nio and Xpeng releasing models in several European countries.

Chinese brands rose from under 1% of Europe's EV market in 2019 to 8% in 2023, according to the European Commission, and are expected to hit 15% by 2025.

Despite the crackdown, Philip Nothard, insight and strategy director at automotive services company Cox Automotive told Business Insider that the measures will not be enough to keep Chinese EV companies at bay in Europe.

"Even with tariffs, it's not going to slow the growth down," Nothard said.

"If you look at companies like BYD, they have a highly efficient manufacturing supply chain. That makes them extremely agile when it comes to changing products for different marketplaces," he added, suggesting that Chinese companies could adjust their growth plans to keep prices low even with new tariffs.

The trade barriers will also raise fears that China might retaliate with import duties of its own.

Chinese officials have hinted that the Asian superpower could impose taxes as high as 25% on imported cars in response to European and US tariffs.

Abercrombie & Fitch long had a certain, shall we say, reputation. Its employees were hot, its stores reeked of cologne, and unless you were rich and thin, it was not for you. If it's any solace, the company was not really for Wall Street, either; its stock has been languishing over the past decade or so. But that's all changing. While you were sleeping, Abercrombie got good again.

In a day and age where fads are cycling through faster than ever and many brands are struggling to survive, Abercrombie has executed a remarkable turnaround. The business intelligence firm Morning Consult found that Abercrombie's favorability among millennials reached a record high in the first quarter of 2024, and it's making gains with Gen Zers, too. Data from QuestBrand, a brand-management tool, indicates Abercrombie's brand equity — meaning the value consumers see in a brand — has steadily improved over the past couple of years; young adults familiar with the brand were more likely to describe it as "hip," a "good value," and "stylish" in 2023 than they were in 2021. Investors are eating it up: Abercrombie's stock a year ago, your returns would be better than that of almost any other stock, including the Wall Street darling Nvidia. It's evidence that revivals are possible, albeit difficult, with the right execution.

"They reinvented themselves, and it worked," said Janet Joseph Kloppenburg, the president of JJK Research Associates. "Can you and I think of another apparel retailer who literally reinvented themselves and then went to the moon with sales and earnings? It's crazy."

Abercrombie & Fitch has been around since the end of the 19th century, but if you're reading this story, chances are you remember the late-20th-century and early-21st-century versions of the brand. It was all the rage, known for low-rise jeans, shirtless men, and dimly lit stores that all but the most confident (or just obnoxious) customers would feel awkward walking into. It had its fair share of controversies, including allegations of racism and discrimination. Eventually, like a lot of once hot brands, be it Urban Outfitters or Von Dutch, it fell out of favor. (If you're a Gen Zer and do not know about The Thing that was Abercrombie, bless you, and also, there's a Netflix documentary that can help.) When its longtime CEO exited the company at the end of 2014, its sales had declined for 11 consecutive quarters.

Can you and I think of another apparel retailer who literally reinvented themselves and then went to the moon with sales and earnings? It's crazy.

The retail veteran Fran Horowitz was named CEO in 2017, and under new leadership, Abercrombie has turned things around. The company, which also owns the Hollister brand, reported net sales of $1 billion in the first quarter, a 22% jump from the year before, and it expects net sales growth of about 10% for the year. In turn, investors have fallen for Abercrombie. A year ago, the stock was trading at about $32. Now it's above $180. Abercrombie's shares are up nearly 100% this year alone.

"It's a big momentum play at this point," said Zachary Warring, an equity research analyst at CFRA Research.

As Horowitz has pointed out on earnings calls, there's no "silver bullet" for Abercrombie's performance — it's been plugging along executing a playbook it set a few years ago. Abercrombie 2.0, or whatever you'd like to call it, is more inclusive and welcoming. It's not for the scariest teens in your high school anymore but instead for adults in their 20s and 30s who want to look good and feel good and not have to think too hard about it. Abercrombie doesn't want to be "super trendy," a fashion analyst told Fast Company — it wants to do classic silhouettes in classic colors, though it tosses in some prints and ruffles, too.

The company has carefully mapped out what it thinks its customers want when they're at the gym, at work, at happy hour, at a bachelorette party, on vacation, or wherever they'd be during a long weekend. It recently launched a weddings section, which has selections for guests and brides, for honeymoons and rehearsal dinners and receptions. Abercrombie has found success particularly with young women, though it's on the up and up with men, too.

"They are living their best lives," Horowitz told Women's Wear Daily last year. "There's nothing better than being a young millennial. They live for the long weekend."

It wasn't just that the product was good in and of itself.

Kloppenburg said Abercrombie's success had come not just from changing up the look — clothes for all occasions, at a good price point — but from the company's execution, which has included focusing on smaller stores and running a lean inventory.

"They were astute with inventory planning, with store payroll — and wages are up everywhere — with digital investments," she said. "So it wasn't just that the product was good in and of itself."

And since any rebrand is only as good as the number of people who know about it, Abercrombie has embraced social-media platforms such as TikTok and influencer marketing.

"They sell a lot of their products through affiliates on social media, and that's how they do a lot of their marketing now, which I don't know how much you pay attention to that, but in terms of apparel and retail companies, they're probably the best at it," Warring said. "They've really benefited from influencers taking their products, trying it on, and obviously posting the link with it."

Ali Grant, a partner and the chief marketing officer at the Digital Dept., an influencer-management company, told me that compared with other brands, Abercrombie tended to be less demanding about specific scripts for creators and to work with creators beyond "fashion girlies" to reach a broader set of consumers.

"They really allow for creative exploration and direction from the content creator they've hired, which is really rare," she said. "They've made it more loose and more authentic and real, for lack of better words."

As opposed to the Abercrombie of 20 years ago, whose logos screamed A&F, the modern Abercrombie is muted. An influencer may be shilling for Abercrombie, but it feels much more item-forward than brand-forward. The point in the early 2000s was the name; now it's much more the clothes.

There's no guarantee Abercrombie will be on top forever. American Eagle and Gap are starting to pull pages from the same playbook. (It's worth noting that not everything Abercrombie is doing is entirely original, and some of its pants look a lot like Aritzia's.) It looks as if Gap, which includes the brands Banana Republic and Old Navy, is starting to turn itself around and get cool again, too. Kloppenburg pointed out that Abercrombie's operating margins were quite high, and if they decline or if the company starts having to discount more, that could spook investors.

"They're selling a lot of products at full price and full margin. And they make a few mistakes, and those margins start coming down," she said. "So when that happens, the stock will collapse."

Still, Abercrombie has pulled off something unique. Its customers are loving it, and so are investors.

"It's a very sound fundamental story as well right now, and it'll be interesting to see over the next 12 to 18 months," Warring said.

So maybe you don't have to be some flashy tech company to get Wall Street excited, nor do you have to be some elusive brand that makes people feel excluded to be successful. It's neat to see this kind of success story, where smart work and strong execution just … pays off.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

• Data offers a glimpse at the ages, races, and financial statuses of LGBTQ+ Americans.
• DC, Vermont, and Massachusetts have the highest concentrations of same-sex couple households.
• Historically, limited LGBTQ+ data collection has made it hard to identify the community's demographics.

It's pride month in the US, but data shows that gay people exist year-round.

Two key data sources from the Census Bureau offer a snapshot of the LGBTQ+ community in America. Beginning in July 2021, the Household Pulse Survey, which gauges the economic well-being of Americans in the wake of the pandemic, started collecting information on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Meanwhile, the Bureau's annual American Community Survey collects income, age, race, housing, and other demographic data for married and unmarried same-sex couples, although it has not collected data directly on sexual orientation or same-sex couples living in different households.

Data collection on the LGBTQ+ community has been historically limited — which can, in turn, lead to further marginalization. A 2023 Brookings report found that up to 17.3 million adults are not identified as LGBTQ+ in the American Community Survey due to incomplete questions surrounding their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) will pilot asking about sexual orientation and gender identity, potentially resulting in a trove of high-quality data on who in America is gay. But with the available data, here's what we know about the LGBTQ+ community in America.

DC, Vermont, and Massachusetts have the highest concentrations of gay couples

According to Business Insider's analysis of individual-level Household Pulse Survey data from April 2024, around 3% of the population identifies as gay or lesbian. A greater share — about 5% — identifies as bisexual. And around 0.4% of Americans identify as transgender.

Around 1.7% of those who identify as gay or lesbian also identify as transgender. Around a third of gay and lesbian adults are married, per HPS, compared to around 58% of straight adults.

ACS data from 2022 shows that Washington, DC, has the highest percentage of same-sex couple households, at 3.6%. Vermont has the next highest, at 1.8%, followed by Massachusetts at 1.5%. California has the highest number of same-sex households, at over 162,100, followed by Texas at over 107,200.

The average age of the householder of a married same-sex couple is 48.6, compared to 52.9 for married opposite-sex couples. Among opposite same-sex couples, about a third are between 25 and 44, while it's 42% for married same-sex couples. The age distributions were mostly similar for unmarried opposite- and same-sex couples.

Same-sex couples are much more likely to be interracial than opposite-sex couples — 32.2% of same-sex couples are interracial, compared to 18.6% of married opposite-sex couples and 28.6% of unmarried opposite-sex couples.

Same-sex couples are also more likely to have bachelor's degrees. Overall, 54.8% of same-sex householders have a bachelor's degree, while both partners have degrees 35.7% of the time. For married same-sex couples, these values jump to 57.3% and 38.2% respectively. Meanwhile, these values are 44.5% and 28.6%, respectively, for married opposite-sex couples.

Gay Americans are more likely to rent and earn more than straight families

According to ACS data, the majority of same-sex couples make six figures, and the median household income for this demographic is $110,600. For married same-sex couples, this number jumps to $123,500, compared to $109,700 for married opposite-sex couples. Married male-male couples earn a median of $138,700 a year, while married female-female couples earn $111,100 a year. By contrast, unmarried same-sex couples make $94,650 a year.

Business Insider's analysis of individual-level data from the Household Pulse Survey shows the shares of gay and lesbian Americans in different income brackets. Around 9% of gay and lesbian respondents report earning under $25,000 while 10% said they earned over $200,000.

About 62.6% of same-sex couples own their homes, while 37.4% rent. About 72.7% of married same-sex couples own, compared to 81.9% of married opposite-sex couples. Married male-male couples are slightly more likely to own homes than married female-female couples. Unmarried same-sex couples own just 48.7% of the time, slightly above 47.9% of unmarried opposite-sex couples.

According to Household Pulse Survey data, around 15% of LGBTQ+ Americans own homes outright, while around 35% own with a mortgage or loan.

In nearly two-thirds of same-sex couples, both partners are working, though this drops to 61.9% for married same-sex couples. However, same-sex couples are significantly less likely to have children in the household at just 14.6%, compared to 38.1% of married opposite-sex couples and 34.5% of unmarried opposite-sex couples.

And, as more data emerges about who in the US is gay, the LGBTQ+ population is also getting bigger — underscoring the importance of capturing who, exactly, makes up this growing group. Recent Gallup polling shows that around 7.6% of American adults identify as non-heterosexual, up from 3.5% in 2012.

You can chalk some of that up to the youths — just over 22% of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+, suggesting that gay Americans could become an even bigger force in the not-so-distant future.

• As a parent with a demanding job, neurosurgeon Betsy Grunch is sometimes saddled with mom guilt. 
• Missing out on family plans because of work has made her feel like she's let her kids down.
• Grunch has had to take steps to prioritize time at home, including hiring more help at work.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Dr. Betsy Grunch, a neurosurgeon from Georgia, about how she balances her job with being a parent. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

As a neurosurgeon, I work an average of 50 to 60 hours a week. I'm also a mom of two: my son is 9, and my daughter is 6.

I consider myself a kind, loving, and supportive mom. I'm very hands-on with my kids, but due to the nature and hours of my job, I sometimes miss out on certain events in their lives, like baseball games, which can make me feel like I've let them down.

Earlier in my career, I would worry that taking time off would affect my income, so I'd work more than I needed to. I wasn't home as much when my kids were little, and I wasn't as good at balancing my responsibilities.

Over the years, I've learned to prioritize my work-life balance and have made specific changes at home and work, accepting that I can't do everything all at once.

My husband and I decided I'd work, and he'd stay home

I met my husband Ray when I was a neurosurgical resident. We got married in my fifth year and moved from North Carolina to Georgia after I completed my residency to start my practice. Our first child was born in 2015.

Even before I got pregnant, my husband wasn't working that much and did a lot of the chores at home, so we knew he'd mostly be the one to stay home with the kids. We agreed on this arrangement and decided to hire a nanny while the kids were little. We wouldn't be doing things the traditional way, with the woman staying at home.

Ray and I are a team. He does most of the chores except washing dishes and folding laundry, which I take on. We hire people to help with yard work and a cleaner who comes twice a month, but Ray does other household jobs like paying bills and handyman and car stuff.

We split childcare responsibilities. I try to get up at 6 a.m. and work out for 30 to 45 minutes. I get the kids up at 7 a.m. and take them to school so I can be at the hospital at 7:30 a.m.

Ray picks them up and makes sure they do their homework. He usually takes them to any after-school activities. I try to be home by 5 or 6 p.m., and Ray and I share dinner-making responsibilities and putting the kids to bed.

In the evening, we both have some time to ourselves. I usually use this time to reply to emails, do chores, and work on content, as I'm also a content creator.

Ray does occasional work as a private investigator, and when he isn't around, we'll have a nanny or my cousin look after the kids.

I work one out of every five weekends. We try to spend quality time with our kids and go on family vacations at least a couple of times a year.

Missing out on time with my kids has made me feel guilty

Neurosurgery is a male-dominated field. I've had colleagues, teachers, and classmates question my ambition and ability to juggle a family and this job.

Trying to balance work with life can be challenging, and moms often let themselves feel guilty: If we spend too much time at home, we have work guilt, and if we spend too much time at work, we have mom guilt.

My job is very rewarding, but it's also stressful and physically and mentally demanding. I have very ill patients and sometimes have to make high-level decisions. Cases can take 30 minutes or eight hours to manage, and I'm not often sure when I'll be done for the day. It could be 4:30 p.m. or midnight.

I try to get home for around 6 p.m., but it's never predictable. If I know there's no way I'll be home for dinner, I'll text Ray to let him know so he can plan to spend the evening with the kids as he desires.

When I'm on call for my job, I'm not required to be at the hospital, but I have to be prepared to respond and go there if need be. In that case, Ray would usually be around to look after the kids.

I'll receive calls at home and have to open up scans on my computer to make important decisions about a case. I sometimes have to ask my kids to give me five minutes while I put them to bed.

Usually, they're understanding. They know mommy takes care of people. But sometimes they get jealous that I'm paying attention to my computer instead of them.

Until around two years ago, I consistently got home at 7 or 8 p.m., and my kids would be asleep by then. When I didn't get to see my kids for days on end, I'd feel sad and like I'd disappointed them.

I've made specific changes to alleviate some of my responsibilities

I've realized that I want to dedicate time to myself and my family. I wanted to watch my kids grow up. At work, for the most part, you're replaceable, but at home, you are not.

Over the past two years, I've learned how to balance my responsibilities much better by getting more help at work and at home.

Since 2022, I've hired two additional physician assistants at the clinic. They can see patients, write notes, and refill prescriptions for me. I also hired a social media manager who helps me with my content creation tasks. We don't rely on a nanny much, but we do use her when we go out of town without the kids or go out for dinner together. During the summer, she'll watch them a few times a week to give Ray a break to do other things around the house.

It can be hard to ask for help, but once you do, it's mentally liberating. Outsourcing certain responsibilities has been life-changing and helpful. I can spend a lot more time with my kids now.

I've learned to prioritize mental health more over the years. This year, I've started taking every fifth Monday off as a personal day to have time for self-care activities like getting a massage or having my hair done.

I'm learning to accept that I can't do it all — and I want to continue to strive for growth and balance.

• Donald Trump on Sunday floated the idea of eliminating taxes on income earned from tips.
• The move could result in employers paying lower wages, and customers tipping more.
• One tax law expert told BI the "pandering" proposal really just opens up "the door to tax evasion."

During a rally in Nevada on Sunday, former President Donald Trump proposed eliminating taxes on income earned from tips.

"For those hotel workers and people that get tips, you're going to be very happy, because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips," The Wall Street Journal reported Trump said. "We're going to do that right away first thing in office because it's been a point of contention for years and years and years, and you do a great job of service."

The off-the-cuff proposal would require congressional approval but, if passed, could also create what economists and tax law experts who spoke to Business Insider said would quickly become a two-tiered labor market.

Under a tax-free tip system, employees who work for tips — such as waiters, bartenders, drivers, and some hotel staff — would have a financial advantage over other low-wage workers, such as those who work in fast food, because they could avoid Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes.

It could also mean consumers — already experiencing significant tipping fatigue as tipping culture pervades more industries — would be asked to tip in additional situations so workers could receive untaxed income.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told Business Insider that, if elected, Trump plans to ask Congress to eliminate taxes on tips. The spokesperson added, "Joe Biden has aggressively stepped up the IRS going after tip workers."

Though the IRS announced a program last year to encourage voluntary compliance with reporting rules, none of the tax experts who spoke with BI could identify a new Biden administration policy targeting tipped workers.

While the Trump campaign did not provide any details about the proposal, an economist and two tax law experts told BI it would insert more complexity in the tax code without offering any substantial benefits to tipped workers — or anyone else.

The policy would create a massive tax loophole

"If you think you get asked for tips a lot now, just wait until tips aren't taxed," Martha Gimbel, the executive director of Yale University's Budget Lab, told Business Insider. She added that a new system would only create "an incentive for employers to try to get more of their workers' compensation in the form of tips."

If passed, Gimbel noted, such a proposal could allow business owners in industries like hospitality — in which Trump has made millions — to essentially shift the responsibility for workers' salaries onto consumers and claim tax breaks for themselves in the form of lower fees on payroll and Social Security.

"The potential effect is that the average person is no better off, except the argument would be that they might be better off because it's not taxed, but the tax savings they would get will be captured by the employer who's lowered their pay," Steven Bank, a tax law expert and professor of business law at the UCLA School of Law, told BI.

David Kamin, a tax law and policy expert at New York University and a former economic policy advisor to the Biden and Obama administrations, told BI that this proposal is "not the way to do it" if you really want to offer a tax break to low-wage workers.

"The right way, if you want to give someone a tax cut, is not to have them evade the law," Kamin said. "It's to have them abide by the law and to give them a tax cut that's available irrespective of whether you're making a wage or making a tip."

But rather than a well-considered platform position that could further enrich himself or business owners like him, Bank noted, Trump's proposal seems more akin to an "elementary school political promise to have candy in the vending machines and no school on Fridays."

"This is just really opening up the door to tax evasion, and it's very much pandering to the casino crowd in Nevada," Bank said.

• Apple's partnership with OpenAI integrates ChatGPT with Siri.
• Apple works hard to ensure that user data is secure and stored mostly on its devices. 
• Users can prevent OpenAI from using their data to train AI models via settings controls.

Apple's big partnership with OpenAI this week came with assurances about data privacy.

Apple goes further than any other big tech company to keep your data secure and mostly on its devices.

The generative AI boom is putting pressure on Apple's device-only data strategy, though. The most impressive AI feats these days require massive amounts of data to be processed in the cloud.

This certainly applies to ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot that's powered by its GPT AI models in Microsoft's cloud data centers.

Apple's Siri will be integrated with ChatGPT soon. Apple users will be asked if they're ok sending some complex requests to ChatGPT.

The privacy protections sound pretty good here:

"Privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won't store requests," Apple said on Monday.

ChatGPT data-use policies apply

However, if Apple users connect a ChatGPT account, the situation changes.

"ChatGPT's data-use policies apply for users who choose to connect their account," according to Apple.

So, what is OpenAI's policy here?

The startup states clearly that user data is fair game for AI model training.

"When you use our services for individuals such as ChatGPT or DALL-E, we may use your content to train our models," OpenAI says on its website.

This is the default setting. But if you want to switch this off, OpenAI lets you. The startup has a helpful FAQ on this here.

How to turn AI model training off in iOS

In the ChatGPT iOS app, this is how you stop OpenAI using your data to train its AI models:

Tap the three dots on the top right corner of the screen.

Go to "Settings," then "Data Controls."

There's a toggle called "Improve the model for everyone" which is automatically switched on. Just switch it off.

How to turn AI model training off on the web

On the web, find your ChatGPT profile icon on the bottom-left of the page.

Select "Settings" and then "Data Controls."

Then disable "Improve the model for everyone."

"While this is disabled, new conversations won't be used to train our models," OpenAI explains.

• Japanese property developer Sekisui House is planning to demolish one of its newest developments.
• The decision came after neighbors complained that it blocked their view of Mount Fuji. 
• Japan's also erected mesh barriers to try to deter tourists from flocking to Mount Fuji hot spots. 

First, Japan erected an eight-foot mesh barrier in front of a popular spot in the resort town of Fujikawaguchiko, where tourists flock to take pictures of Mount Fuji.

Then it announced plans to build a tall, anti-tourist metal fence at another popular photo spot, the Mount Fuji Dream Bridge.

The quest to preserve these pristine views, however, just got more intense — a Japanese property developer has decided to knock down its nearly-finished 10-storied condominium after neighbors complained that it would block their view of the snowy peak.

The Grand Maison Kunitachi Fujimi Dori condominium, built by developer Sekisui House, is located in western Tokyo, in an area famous for its views of the country's highest mountain. The building is located on Fujimi Street, a picturesque viewing street.

In a statement on Tuesday, the developer said that it tried to change the condominium's design to reduce its impact on the view, but eventually decided to knock it down entirely.

"We have concluded that the current situation has a significant impact on the landscape, and have come to the conclusion that the despair from Fujimi Street is a priority, and have independently decided to cancel this project," Sekisui House said in the statement.

The condominium comprised 18 housing units, priced from around $445,000 to $646,000, per the report by Bloomberg.

Its tenants were due to move into the condominium in a month's time, per Bloomberg.

A spokesperson for the developer told Bloomberg that the company would compensate its apartment buyers and assist them with finding housing if required.

That said, Japan's efforts to prevent Fuji-hunting tourists from creating a nuisance for the locals have been aggressive — but travelers yearning for the perfect picture have found ways to foil these plans.

For one, the authorities found about 10 finger-sized holes in the mesh in Fujikawaguchiko just a week after the barrier went up.

Sekisui House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Housing is a basic need. No matter how expensive it gets, people still need somewhere to live.

Given this truism, it's no wonder that the populations of America's so-called superstar cities have stagnated while the Sun Belt's metropolitan areas have boomed. When a city — or, as in the case of California, an entire state — doesn't have enough homes to go around, priced-out residents are forced to relocate to other parts of the country.

A lack of building in places like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco has sent home prices and rents soaring, leading to a plateau or even outright decline in the number of people living in these cities. On the flip side, the populations of relatively housing-abundant, lower-cost cities have swelled: Austin has grown by more than 25% over the past decade, while Jacksonville, Florida; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Orlando have each grown by more than 20%. On the eve of the pandemic, most of the people emigrating from California were middle-class or lower-income; Texas, Arizona, and Florida are the states that have received the largest influxes of ex-Californians. One 2023 analysis found that New York state continued gaining millionaires even as overall population growth stagnated.

Some movement between cities and regions is good. Relocating to a new city can be a great way to raise your income, broaden your cultural horizons, or discover a sense of community and belonging. But America's current seismic reshuffling is something much less benign than a series of freely chosen moves.

As the middle class flees superstar cities, those who are able to stick around are likely either too rich to care about housing costs or too poor to take on the expense of relocating somewhere more affordable. For one, this has dramatically reshaped regional job markets. The COVID-era transition to more remote work accelerated this process of "domestic offshoring," a recent study by the workforce-analytics company ADP found. Because there's less of a need for proximity between a firm's leadership and its employees, executives have become more concentrated in high-cost metropolitan areas, while middle-class jobs have shipped off to areas with lower labor costs — areas that, not coincidentally, also tend to have lower housing costs.

In the short run, middle-class job growth benefits regional economies in places like Austin, Raleigh, and Charlotte, North Carolina. But in the long run, the high concentration of high-powered individuals in a select few metros is a disaster for social mobility. Domestic offshoring regionally segregates middle- and working-class employees from their employers, making it far more difficult for the former group to advance professionally. This not only creates a dangerous power imbalance between cities but hollows out formerly diverse, vibrant cultural scenes in some of America's biggest cities.

As America has sorted into high-cost regions and relatively affordable regions, class itself has become an increasingly regional phenomenon.

The promise of mobility

Regional mobility and social mobility have long gone hand in hand. It wasn't just that the higher-wage starting positions tended to cluster in boomtowns; it was that residing in a boomtown put one in closer contact with all kinds of other opportunities. These might include the chance to network with executives or other employees further up the career ladder; exposure to more-remunerative adjacent professions; or access to investment capital, for those who want to start their own businesses.

For example, a relatively green developer from Nashville could move to the Bay Area and be able to rub shoulders with venture capitalists — and eventually entice those venture capitalists to provide the seed money for a new startup. The developer could even move their business back to Nashville, leveraging the connections from their time in California to bring new jobs to Tennessee. This dynamic cultural and economic exchange wouldn't have been possible if the developer had been unable to make the cross-country move. The opportunity loss would be even greater for a customer-service representative who wants to move into a higher-wage, higher-status role as a developer but doesn't have access to a professional network of developers because their employer keeps all those workers in a different metropolitan area.

It's not just the individual worker who loses out. When people get locked out of opportunities to raise their incomes or start new businesses, the national economy suffers. An influential 2019 paper by the economists Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti found that low housing supply in superstar cities had significantly constrained US economic growth by limiting "the number of US workers who have access to the most productive of American cities." Domestic offshoring threatens to lock in these effects, potentially costing the country trillions of dollars in forgone wealth creation.

When people get locked out of opportunities to raise their incomes or start new businesses, the national economy suffers.

The superstar cities that ostensibly gain more influence also suffer. A city for managers and executives will never be a city of managers and executives — no matter how many bosses relocate to New York City, they will always be a minority of the population. But if domestic offshoring persists, fewer of the city's other residents will be middle-class professionals; those people will tend to congregate in domestic-offshoring sites. Instead, the superstar cities will become luxury-service economies. Corporate leaders will still create jobs in places like San Francisco and New York, but they will be jobs for the support staffers who sustain the executive lifestyle: food servers, house cleaners, nannies, and so on. These cities, which are already deeply segregated and unequal, will become even more bifurcated between an elite class and a servant class. Beneath the servant class, and overlapping with its lower tiers, will be the large and growing ranks of the truly destitute.

Of course, those at the bottom of this class system will suffer the most. But in the long run, this process will make us all poorer, costing us both forgone economic growth and the cultural vitality that can only be found in diverse cities.

More beds for more heads

There is one surefire way to reverse domestic offshoring: build more housing. Companies, the ADP study says, "have an incentive to locate" individual and front-line workers "in places that are more affordable" and where a lower cost of living translates into less upward pressure on wages. If housing in major cities were more affordable, that incentive would diminish, encouraging firms to spread the distribution of roles equally. Workers could move from one office to another in order to advance their careers or offer more value without worrying about the exorbitant cost of their new home.

There is one surefire way to reverse domestic offshoring: build more housing.

If the pressures that lead to domestic offshoring are a lose-lose for all the cities involved, then changing course can be a win-win. Even as high-cost cities build more housing and work to reconstruct their middle classes, the growing Sun Belt cities on the other side of domestic offshoring can continue to thrive. They can do this by fostering diversified local economies — with their own local executive class — that are not reliant on any single large employer or industry. Further, they can avoid the mistakes of the larger cities and preemptively build plenty of dense, multifamily, infill housing. This will ease the upward pressure that a growing population puts on housing costs. It will also facilitate future population growth, which can, in turn, support a virtuous cycle of rising productivity, greater economic diversification, and further population increases.

The goal should not be to pick winners and losers among cities but to ensure economic integration within cities. Without such integration, the superstar cities face social and political collapse, while workers in domestically offshored jobs face narrower horizons for economic mobility. Society will end up sharing in the cost: If we allow our cities to become divided into imperial metropoles and economic hinterlands, we will all end up poorer. On the other hand, economic integration, and the productivity gains that come along with it, can make us all more prosperous.

Ned Resnikoff is the policy director of California YIMBY and co-leader of the Metropolitan Abundance Project.

• Forklift drivers are an essential part of warehouse operations for Costco.
• It's a challenging and sometimes stressful job, but one that earns a $2 hourly wage premium.
• A Costco forklift driver in Chicago shares what the job is like.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with a Chicago-area Costco forklift driver who requested anonymity as they are not authorized to speak with the media. Business Insider verified their identity and employment details. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I joined Costco in 2011, starting out in the food court, and have done pretty much everything from merchandising to produce, deli, meat department, tire shop, and marketing. I was a supervisor in the warehouse and then ultimately settled down as a forklift driver.

Typically, Costco forklift drivers are seen kind of like supervisors, because you designate the flow of the building. You either set it up for success or failure, depending on what goes on in the receiving area.

I also make more as a forklift driver now than I did ten years ago as a supervisor. My current wage is just 20 cents less than a supervisor's right now, so they hold you up to very similar standards. And it's fun driving a machine!

We help Costco sell huge amounts of stuff

For example, today we were out of stock of Kirkland Signature water, but a truck driver came in early with 20 pallets of it. And I know we're gonna sell that water as soon as we throw it out there on the floor, so I told him to back up to the dock door, and I unloaded it right away.

That was six hours early, plus we would have been closed at the time we were scheduled to unload him, so that's 20 pallets of water that's gonna sell before the end of the day.

Then, a different truck came that had 24-packs of Monster. As soon as you unload them, they sell out, so that's another three pallets of sales for today that wouldn't have been added if I hadn't unloaded that truck.

I'll look at the inventory on hand and work with the merchants to make sure we remove certain things from the floor and set the flow of the building because if we keep stuff in the truck and keep it back there on the dock, it's not going to sell, and that's bad for everyone.

We receive full truckloads of everything we need, sorted by corporate and shipped out to us. The buyers look at our sales and see what we're projected to sell and they tell the depot to send a certain amount of pallets to a given building.

Typically, a truck has a minimum of 20 pallets and a maximum of 60 pallets of items, depending on how heavy the items are. You don't really see smaller stores going through three truckloads of water or a truckload of paper towels in a day.

In a truckload of 60 pallets of paper towels, each pallet has 30 sell units, so that's 1,800 packs of towels. The sheer volume of things that go through our building is crazy.

Costco takes safety incredibly seriously

I'm actually a Costco forklift trainer, too.

Costco worked with OSHA to set up its own certification course. We have a third-party company that certifies all the trainers, but the trainers are all Costco employees. Every building has to have at least one trainer and they are the only ones who can train and certify Costco employees to operate the machines.

Trainers are usually the more veteran drivers who have shown they know how to operate safely because it's not just about driving fast.

When you drive a forklift, you actually don't have to drive fast; you have to drive smart, and you have to drive carefully because these forklifts weigh as much as three cars. The battery alone on a forklift weighs as much as a car, so there's a lot of weight and power there.

We only train one person at a time to make sure that we're giving them the attention they need, and then they get around 20 hours of supervised driving.

In the end, if we feel comfortable with how they drive and they've shown that they're going to be safe drivers, we go through a checklist. They have to show proficiency in load placement, driving in the freezer, operating instructions, vehicle stability, and properly caring for the battery.

After six months, we take them through an evaluation to make sure they're still driving safely. If they've had no incidents, we give them full certification. Then they just have to recertify every two years.

Our location hasn't had any notable accidents, but any major incidents in a warehouse are documented and shared with all the warehouses for review and to see how they could have been prevented.

There's a lot of safety information being passed around throughout the company.

There's always work for a forklift driver

Once you're a forklift driver, there's zero turnover rate. We have a joke among Costco employees that forklift drivers think they're God's gift to the earth because they're always needed everywhere.

We're pretty much the only ones who get offered overtime. Even when there's an overtime freeze, they'll still offer us overtime because they need us so badly.

Forklift drivers also get a $2 premium on their hourly wage. Nobody ever wants to quit being a forklift driver.

Not everybody can be a forklift driver, though. There can be a lot of stress, especially in the morning before the warehouse opens.

It's hard to find somebody with the right mindset to be a forklift driver because it's not something that everybody can handle.

As a trainer, if I see you freaking out while you're making a hot dog, I don't think I want you driving a 5,000-pound machine.

Essential machines — and essential employees

I think there's a reason why our new CEO used to be a forklift driver — there's always so much to do, and the work is never done. It's such an essential machine, specifically for Costco.

Where are you going to fit 2,000 pallets of merchandise? You can't keep it on the floor, so you're gonna have to rack it on tall steel shelves, and you're gonna eventually have to bring that stuff down.

You can fit one pallet of chips on the floor, but that pallet of chips is gonna sell within an hour, so you're gonna have to bring out a forklift and bring down another two pallets. Boom, let's go. Oh, and now you're out of Gatorade.

Let's say TVs are on sale for $200. Guess what? You're gonna have to drop some more TVs down from the rack in 20 minutes.

Whenever we go out on the floor, we have a spotter in front and a spotter in back, and they kind of help keep people away. We also close the aisle that we're working on, as well as the aisle adjacent to us in case anything were to fall on the other side.

And we have to work efficiently since those aisles aren't making sales if they're closed.

The $2-an-hour incentive helped push people to want to be forklift drivers again. We want to work for Costco, but money talks. Offer us more money, and I'm gonna want to do that job.