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I guess this sort of idea is not unexpected for someone who was the Greek finance minister working for the Alliance of the Radical Left. He was not successful as a Finance Minister and was soon fired from the job. Now he seems to be looking to start another left wing party and campaign for the position of Prime Minster.
"Capitalism is ending because it has made itself obsolete. For the first time since capitalism started, new technology “is going to destroy a lot more jobs than it creates”.
I would say that in the next 5-10 years we will see shifts to socialism as the young people start drastically out numbering boomers. I am all for bringing back progressive taxation on large to medium sized companies who fail to property invest in job creation within their own companies. Steep tarrifs on imported goods and federal jobs for people displaced by automation. Federal sales taxes on goods manufactured by robots, etc.
If our system of govt continues allowing people to just die on the streets then I will hope my wife will reconsider leaving the USA.
I am all for bringing back progressive taxation on large to medium sized companies who fail to property invest in job creation within their own companies. Steep tarrifs on imported goods and federal jobs for people displaced by automation. Federal sales taxes on goods manufactured by robots, etc.
I agree with the spirit (things need to be changed) but your particulars are a bit of a mess.
"Properly invest in job creation" and "tax on goods manufactured by robots" would be impossible to define. And I definitely don't wish to see an increase in governmental BS jobs. Better for people to get used to not having jobs.
We'd be much better off by letting capitalism do its thing while skimming off profits and distributing them in an efficient manner. Like a BI. Varoufakis's proposal is "10 per cent of all future issue of shares to be put into a "common welfare fund" owned by the people. Out of this a "universal basic dividend" could be paid to every citizen." I hadn't thought about that, but it doesn't seem like nearly enough unless AI stalls at a primitive level.
I agree with the spirit (things need to be changed) but your particulars are a bit of a mess.
"Properly invest in job creation" and "tax on goods manufactured by robots" would be impossible to define. And I definitely don't wish to see an increase in governmental BS jobs. Better for people to get used to not having jobs.
We'd be much better off by letting capitalism do its thing while skimming off profits and distributing them in an efficient manner. Like a BI. Varoufakis's proposal is "10 per cent of all future issue of shares to be put into a "common welfare fund" owned by the people. Out of this a "universal basic dividend" could be paid to every citizen." I hadn't thought about that, but it doesn't seem like nearly enough unless AI stalls at a primitive level.
No way would the elites support a progressive taxation high enough to support a robust BI system, they kick and scream when they have to follow WARN before doing a mass lay off and thats only 30 extra days of wages. Could you imagne the corporate adult temper tantrums of supporting an indefinate BI system that was actaully substantial enough to support someone?
No way would the elites support a progressive taxation high enough to support a robust BI system.
I agree. They'd only do it if they had to, and the only reason they'd have to is because a majority of the population woke up and forced the issue. I don't see any indication of that happening, do you?
I should probably reiterate that I don't believe AI and automation have advanced to the point where they are having a necessary detrimental effect on wages and employment. Rather wages have been depressed (for 40 years!) for other reasons. But the fact that propaganda has managed to keep the public divided, confused, oblivious, and powerless over that issue makes me think that the oligarchs will be getting exactly what they want for the foreseeable future.
I agree. They'd only do it if they had to, and the only reason they'd have to is because a majority of the population woke up and forced the issue. I don't see any indication of that happening, do you?
I should probably reiterate that I don't believe AI and automation have advanced to the point where they are having a necessary detrimental effect on wages and employment. Rather wages have been depressed (for 40 years!) for other reasons. But the fact that propaganda has managed to keep the public divided, confused, oblivious, and powerless over that issue makes me think that the oligarchs will be getting exactly what they want for the foreseeable future.
Ahh Comeon...Causality is as we all know a very difficult proof. But that automation and the computer has had a huge impact is pretty obvious. Check out travel agents or telephone operators or even secretaries. That is aside for the obvious like welders on car lines.
Is it the sole cause of wage stagnation and employment problems? Of course not. But it is a contributor...and likely will become an increasingly big one. I do not think I will live to see the S hit the F...but it is, at this point...inevitable.
The wise think of course would be for the government to get ahead of it. That avoids it being pushed after it becomes a huge issue. Such things are better avoided than solved after the fact.
Ahh Comeon...Causality is as we all know a very difficult proof. But that automation and the computer has had a huge impact is pretty obvious. Check out travel agents or telephone operators or even secretaries. That is aside for the obvious like welders on car lines.
Is it the sole cause of wage stagnation and employment problems? Of course not. But it is a contributor...and likely will become an increasingly big one. I do not think I will live to see the S hit the F...but it is, at this point...inevitable.
The wise think of course would be for the government to get ahead of it. That avoids it being pushed after it becomes a huge issue. Such things are better avoided than solved after the fact.
I think what will most likely happen is a brain drain the very moment that another nation steps up to the plate. Once another nation creates a safe space for engineers, doctors, etc and opens up their boarders and has research opprotunities, jobs, etc the USA will be like Venseula over night. More and more cities will start looking like Detroit.
As of yet no nation has stepped up to the plate and sent out a signal to the highly skilled. I think alot of people are disenfranchised with the USA and would leave the moment a genuine opprotunity arived (ie a nice package, new passport and job opprotunity, etc).
Ahh Comeon...Causality is as we all know a very difficult proof. But that automation and the computer has had a huge impact is pretty obvious. Check out travel agents or telephone operators or even secretaries. That is aside for the obvious like welders on car lines.
This has been constantly happening since since industrialization about 200 years ago. Job destruction is a necessary aspect of productivity improvements, and productivity is what increases living standards.
The "problem" is easily solved by ensuring that consumers share in productivity gains. That ended in the late 70s, and was replaced by fiat money, debt escalation, and creative finance, to keep consumption boosted... so that the great majority of gains could go to capital instead.
AI/automation will not be a cause of wage and job loss until it advances to the point where people become functionally unemployable, meaning any job they could do would be more cheaply done by machine. Until then, the easily solution will be to do what we did in the past.
"The system would be able to “plug gaps in its knowledge and refine its model of human behavior” — not just your particular behavior or mine, but that of the entire human species. “By thinking of user data as multigenerational,” explains Foster, “it becomes possible for emerging users to benefit from the preceding generation’s behaviors and decisions.” Foster imagines mining the database of human behavior for patterns, “sequencing” it like the human genome, and making “increasingly accurate predictions about decisions and future behaviours.”
Of course knowing everything about us and how best to manipulate us, will only be used for our collective "benefit", right? Surely the owners and controllers of this capability wouldn't use this power to steer us in a direction that maximizes *their* wishes for the future....
What motivates people and by extension, companies, to seek power and control at this level? These words were written long ago, perhaps people should heed them today:
"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"
-- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four
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Google and soical engineering
