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In the future scenario, the basic point would be that machines would be the productive ones.
If AI and machines provided the large bulk of all the goods and services that we needed, then most jobs would no longer be necessary. ............
Buck Roger science fiction!
Look at reality.
We have Rumba that bounces around and does a poor job of vacuuming.
AI? We have megacomputers that can perform a quadrillion calculations per second and can barely beat a chess master. We have self driving cars. Somebody recently tried to use one to drive down a open road in broad daylight and it killed him.
So we have robotic machines that can be programmed to weld and move parts in a factory. That is a long, long way from a society that just sits back and watches machines do everything for us.
I spent my life working with high tech computerized robotics. The robotics could handle routine tasks thousands of times faster and better than before. Productivity went through the roof. So what happened to all the workers? More and more were needed. Those included people in administration, safety, HR, advertising/marketing/sales, logistics, purchasing, product delivery, on and on. So surely those who used to work in production lost jobs? No with more products at lower costs, demand just kept going up and more people were needed to keep track of the machines and do what machines could not do.
To date... those MOST able to pay their way in life have demonstrated that they aren't stupid.
The birth rates of the able, probably represented by nearly everyone reading this, have been SELF moderated to align with the resources of time and money they can provide their dependents.
US fertility rates have recently been at their lowest levels since record-keeping was begun in 1909. The starkest declines have come among minority populations.
I don't ascribe any sort of malice or program to the dependent classes that have too many children. I reserve such machinations for the political elites. The poor simply don't understand how much it costs to raise children, and what the time commitment will be, and what their children's chances of success will be.
The only way to successfully reduce that birthrate is with education. Thankfully that process is underway, as the declining birthrate among the poor demonstrates. I'd like to believe someone reading this thread may ruminate on it and think twice before having a child they cannot support, but that's as unrealistic as the shared prosperity and leisure of UBI.
Rather, it is the gradual process of seeing friends and family exercise family planning, and maybe forgo child birth altogether, that convinces people. Once you see your mom stressed out from working two jobs to make ends meet, and you see your aunt who finished high school, maybe went to college, and is single and prosperous, or waiting for the right guy. You see that your aunt is happier and you know what path you want to take. Or you see your uncle hounded with child support payments and never being able to get ahead, or you never see your father, and you know what life path will make you happier.
This is the sort of education that really sinks in.
Look at reality. So what happened to all the workers? More and more were needed. Those included people in administration, safety, HR, advertising/marketing/sales, logistics, purchasing, product delivery, on and on. So surely those who used to work in production lost jobs? No with more products at lower costs, demand just kept going up and more people were needed to keep track of the machines and do what machines could not do.
Excess labor force was channeled to the non essential (or outright fraudulent) industries of dubious existential value generating new wants and 123456 varietis of the same junk as well as canibalizing what's left of the social fabric (I.e. formerly neighborly/family thing to do is a business opportunity in a new world generating jobs), the people who could not find a spot in the new economy generating new wants created an underground economy supplying the old ones, which created tremendous employment opportunities in the law, law enforcement and incarceration. Social services assist in job creation. Labor excess spawned another booming field generating jobs by millions in educational label and credential industry of dubious common sense value, dont forget about millions of the jobs governments create. It is just too bad that absurd of the jobs for the sake of jobs is a very fragile and rapacious beast not from this planet. Besides even absurd scheme of employmment above hit the wall of inequality standing in the way of creation of yet more of new wants to create famed jobs. And dont forget that we have just 24 hours to satiate the old and many new job creating wants. Something has to give.
We have Rumba that bounces around and does a poor job of vacuuming.
AI? We have megacomputers that can perform a quadrillion calculations per second and can barely beat a chess master. We have self driving cars. Somebody recently tried to use one to drive down a open road in broad daylight and it killed him.
So we have robotic machines that can be programmed to weld and move parts in a factory. That is a long, long way from a society that just sits back and watches machines do everything for us.
I spent my life working with high tech computerized robotics. The robotics could handle routine tasks thousands of times faster and better than before. Productivity went through the roof. So what happened to all the workers? More and more were needed. Those included people in administration, safety, HR, advertising/marketing/sales, logistics, purchasing, product delivery, on and on. So surely those who used to work in production lost jobs? No with more products at lower costs, demand just kept going up and more people were needed to keep track of the machines and do what machines could not do.
No doubt many jobs will remain, and many news ones and types we don't even know about will arise. But for so many broad segments, AI and technology will continue to wither them away. Truck drivers and doctors over time...
Money is an out-dated and obsolete concept. I don't think in terms of UBI so much as people doing the work as needed while housing, food, education, and (especially) medical care is provided by government entitities.
In short, socialism without graft. You can't really have graft without the pretend value of money.
Only labor has value. Without labor, here are no "things" or services. Money is just a way to hoard.
Automation doesn't grow gardens, chickens, livestock, build cabins and barns, mend fences, make and wash clothes, chop wood, can food and other things people can do for themselves.
Btw, automation cannot exist without consumers. Consumers can't exist without incomes. Stop taxing and giving welfare, and automation will cease. I would rather live off the land then collect welfare.
Money is an out-dated and obsolete concept. I don't think in terms of UBI so much as people doing the work as needed while housing, food, education, and (especially) medical care is provided by government entitities.
In short, socialism without graft. You can't really have graft without the pretend value of money.
Only labor has value. Without labor, here are no "things" or services. Money is just a way to hoard.
I agree. The basics can be centrally provided, giving all our people the money is not necessary.
I don't ascribe any sort of malice or program to the dependent classes that have too many children.
I reserve such machinations for the political elites.
And their religious masters who actively work against having meaningful sex education, un-complicatedly free birth control,
and dictate shuttering or at least defunding Planned Parenthood.
Quote:
The poor simply don't understand...
The only way to successfully reduce that birthrate is with education.
Not the only way ...but it is the most critical aspect.
I am one of the 14 million that has retired and has no interest in working.
Is there no possible job that could motivate you to work? A lot of retired people stay retired in preference to the jobs available to them, but would gladly go back to work if they could find a job they really liked.
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