With the introduction of automation every decade (currently AI is the big one), unemployment rates will go up so we don’t even need as many working. Our capitalist brains just can’t fathom “handing out” extra resources.
Every automation brought more work, rather than less. Why? Because profit. If the boss owner can get more out of less people, they will fire the unneeded workers, bring prices down and force the competition to either follow or close down
That’s not exactly true though. With excess, we’ve increased the needs and wants of individuals and scaled production to match. We could easily provide the same amount as before with less people, but every generation is leveraging the growth of the previous generation. Once we don’t grow in one generation, we’ll plateau and we won’t be ready for it. It’ll be the social version of an economic recession.
It’s more work because the company continues to operate like before and just piles more into it instead of looking at the overall work and removing things that aren’t necessary, and reorganizing operations/back office.
I’d call that pile on of more work productivity. If you can get 20 blankets a day with automation instead of 20 a month without, and they’re of similar quality, then why wouldn’t you?
Now you put automation in front of a good coder and all the sudden that video game that used to take 5 years to make, only takes a year. Again, all good if you can approach similar quality.
Back 500 years ago, only the wealthiest could afford a fine blanket and it would take ages to produce. Nowadays anyone can purchase one at their preferred store. Automation has increased productivity and thus democratized purchasing power.
There are still billions on this planet that struggle to survive. Billions we could potentially pull out of poverty. Why stop the automation train now when the tracks show that we have further to go?
The question becomes: why are so many people still unable to afford such basic amenities, while a handful of individuals have enough wealth to sustain all of those poors for years?
With the introduction of automation every decade (currently AI is the big one), unemployment rates will go up so we don’t even need as many working. Our capitalist brains just can’t fathom “handing out” extra resources.
Every automation brought more work, rather than less. Why? Because profit. If the boss owner can get more out of less people, they will fire the unneeded workers, bring prices down and force the competition to either follow or close down
That’s not exactly true though. With excess, we’ve increased the needs and wants of individuals and scaled production to match. We could easily provide the same amount as before with less people, but every generation is leveraging the growth of the previous generation. Once we don’t grow in one generation, we’ll plateau and we won’t be ready for it. It’ll be the social version of an economic recession.
It’s more work because the company continues to operate like before and just piles more into it instead of looking at the overall work and removing things that aren’t necessary, and reorganizing operations/back office.
I’d call that pile on of more work productivity. If you can get 20 blankets a day with automation instead of 20 a month without, and they’re of similar quality, then why wouldn’t you?
Now you put automation in front of a good coder and all the sudden that video game that used to take 5 years to make, only takes a year. Again, all good if you can approach similar quality.
Back 500 years ago, only the wealthiest could afford a fine blanket and it would take ages to produce. Nowadays anyone can purchase one at their preferred store. Automation has increased productivity and thus democratized purchasing power.
There are still billions on this planet that struggle to survive. Billions we could potentially pull out of poverty. Why stop the automation train now when the tracks show that we have further to go?
The question becomes: why are so many people still unable to afford such basic amenities, while a handful of individuals have enough wealth to sustain all of those poors for years?