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I'm a lawyer, our industry is getting irreversibly changed because software can do discovery that once took an army of lawyers in a warehouse to do...
It'll happen, just gonna take some time.
That is one example I use in my arguments for people that think the computers are not coming. Thousands more lawyers will be doing PI over the next few years as more and more law firms turn to software. What many may not know is this software is far more accurate and much quicker than whole teams of lawyers.
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Originally Posted by zombocom
The ideal system will come when technology has advanced sufficiently that most labor will not be done by humans, and material wealth will be so abundant that commoditizing it would be pointless.
Although, we're only kinda sorta capitalists.
These days are coming closer and closer. Many people I have noticed react with extreme anger when it is mentioned, and start personal attacks. Wont change the facts though. People always seem to underestimate how much we can automate, and everyone thinks they are immune. For those of you reading this and thinking that, spend a few minutes looking on the web, see what is being automated, and what is being worked on now for future automation. You may be surprised.
And, I would imagine that Capitalism will collapse in this country long before we are fully automated. Once a certain number of jobs have been taken over by machines or made obsolete, people will rebel. But, at what point? 1 job for every 2.x people (like now)? 1 for every 5? 10? 20? There will be a number...
A fantastical idea, and no doubt still centuries (if not millenia away), but I imagine it will happen.
Sort of a Star Trekian state of economic development.
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I'm a lawyer, our industry is getting irreversibly changed because software can do discovery that once took an army of lawyers in a warehouse to do...
Tell me about it, my wife's firm is facing its fifth round of layoffs.
Anyway, one of the things issues Marx attempted to address was the alienation of workers in a capitalist society, something that the Soviets, and the Chinese failed to address. Neither society in any way shape or form had achieved the state of capitalist development which Marx saw as the precursor for the development of a socialist society so their failure in many ways was preordained. Neither state had achieved anything approaching the general material wealth that you describe. So again, any transformation from the present capitalist system will have to address how to eliminate alienation, while taking a page from Max Weber's seminal work, by instilling what some authors have described as the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of socialism.
That is one example I use in my arguments for people that think the computers are not coming. Thousands more lawyers will be doing PI over the next few years as more and more law firms turn to software. What many may not know is this software is far more accurate and much quicker than whole teams of lawyers.
These days are coming closer and closer. Many people I have noticed react with extreme anger when it is mentioned, and start personal attacks. Wont change the facts though. People always seem to underestimate how much we can automate, and everyone thinks they are immune. For those of you reading this and thinking that, spend a few minutes looking on the web, see what is being automated, and what is being worked on now for future automation. You may be surprised.
And, I would imagine that Capitalism will collapse in this country long before we are fully automated. Once a certain number of jobs have been taken over by machines or made obsolete, people will rebel. But, at what point? 1 job for every 2.x people (like now)? 1 for every 5? 10? 20? There will be a number...
Indeed, this recovery has been replete with under employed menial labor (labor that is too cheap to bother with automation, just like illegals in the fields).
Quote:
Originally Posted by ovcatto
Sort of a Star Trekian state of economic development.
Tell me about it, my wife's firm is facing its fifth round of layoffs.
Anyway, one of the things issues Marx attempted to address was the alienation of workers in a capitalist society, something that the Soviets, and the Chinese failed to address. Neither society in any way shape or form had achieved the state of capitalist development which Marx saw as the precursor for the development of a socialist society so their failure in many ways was preordained. Neither state had achieved anything approaching the general material wealth that you describe. So again, any transformation from the present capitalist system will have to address how to eliminate alienation, while taking a page from Max Weber's seminal work, by instilling what some authors have described as the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of socialism.
Haha, Star Trek is exactly it.
As to the legal industry, it doesn't help that the field is over saturated and undergoing permanent shifts away from needing so many lawyers. Well, joke's on me!
Yes, communism has just been a trope used by totalitarians, no country that tried it reached the level of development described by Marx as being necessary to successfully transition to a communist society.
Anyway, unfettered capitalism has inherent tendencies for market distortions such as monopolies which invalidate market pricing principles both for prices paid to consumers and the price for labor. Even a cursory look at relatively unfettered capitalism in the 19th century will serve as a stark example.
Only problem with that is you can't find any monopolies in the 19th Century.
It's impossible to have a monopoly without government protection.
I'm dying to know what part of capitalism you believe are missing or that haven't been present in the U.S. economy.
We have Crony Capitalism. Capitalism would not include government subsidies of big corporations and products.
Eliminate Crony Capitalism (like the GM bailout and Solyndra and many others) and product subsidies like Farm Aid and alternative energy subsidies and we would be making progress. There are many many other government programs that are not capitalistic.
I'm dying to know what part of capitalism you believe are missing or that haven't been present in the U.S. economy.
Also, we have government mandated wages, price controls, profit controls and thousands of regulations that tell businesses what they can sell and when they can sell it.
And, I would imagine that Capitalism will collapse in this country long before we are fully automated. Once a certain number of jobs have been taken over by machines or made obsolete, people will rebel. But, at what point? 1 job for every 2.x people (like now)? 1 for every 5? 10? 20? There will be a number...
I find it ironic that while conservatives lambast the "free loaders" the so called freebees have nothing to do with socialism but rather the so far successful tool used by capitalist societies to stave off the very socialist that they deride. The so-called freebies have been quite successful in the U.S. and Europe of tamping down social upheaval which is now coming to the fore because those nations seem to have forgotten why they instituted those programs in the first place.
Also, we have government mandated wages, price controls, profit controls and thousands of regulations that tell businesses what they can sell and when they can sell it.
Well none of those things existed in the 19th century and the country was either in a constant state of economic crisis or embroiled in some of the worst labor violence that the world has seen outside of the revolutions of 1848 and the Russian Revolution. Now if that is what you are looking forward to repeating, by all means you are welcome to it. Just give me a little warning so I can find a nice "safe" foreign country in South America.
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