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>It does not solve the actual problem of technology decreasing the value of each worker in most of those fields. Technology doesn't reduce the value of workers
by crdoconnor 11y ago
>It does not solve the actual problem of technology decreasing the value of each worker in most of those fields.
Technology doesn't reduce the value of workers, it just shifts the nature of work required.
Austerity and outsourcing reduce the overall level of demand for workers.
Technology is promoted as the scapegoat for austerity and trade deals because of the desire to shape public opinion such that anti-austerians / trade reformers (hard to dismiss) are seen as luddites (easy to dismiss).
- ThomPete 11y agoThe luddite fallacy is a fallacy in itself. It's only easy to dismiss because you choose to ignore the very reality you live in. Jobs are moving two ways. For a smaller and smaller part of the population wages are going up, for the rest it's going down. This is in big parts because technology has pushed the need for people to do jobs out. When automated cars become a reality not only uber drivers but truck drivers (the most common job in the US) is going to be out of jobs. Where are they going to go when most of those jobs are going to be obsolete? You must be able to point to something now. Not just claim that we are going to find someting for them to do. They don't have the time to get re-educated to learn any of the skills that are required for the jobs that are left. The problem with all you techno-optimists is that you don't understand that technology is a competitor not just and aid to humans and that it progresses exponentially not just linearly. The horses didn't find new jobs after the car replaced them. Technology is increasingly competing not just with our muscle but with our brains. So yes technology actually decreases the value of the worker by making them less and less useful for the production output. What it doesn't do is reduce the value of the work needed to get done but this will now be back in the hands of those who own the capital. Reality speaks for itself. Structural unemployement is increasing, the actual wages one can make doing any one jobs is for most decreasing and for those it's increasing the amount of people who can actually do it is decreasing.
- crdoconnor 11y ago>Reality speaks for itself. If you were listening to reality instead projecting you wouldn't be hyperventilating over a product which is currently vaporware (driverless cars). >The horses didn't find new jobs after the car replaced them. Horse riders did. The London Cabbie organisation predates cars. >The problem with all you techno-optimists Uh... you're the techno optimist... not me. I still think human labor has value that can't be replicated.
- ThomPete 11y agoDriverless cars hyperware? Tell that to Uber who is actively working on it. But horses didn't and they are part of the animal race too. Sure it has value, to humans but not in the areas we consider jobs. Techno optimist is someone who sees technology primarily as a tool not a competitor which as far as I can see is exactly what you do.
- ThomPete 11y agohttp://qz.com/656104/a-fleet-of-trucks-just-drove-themselves-across-europe/ http://qz.com/656104/a-fleet-of-trucks-just-drove-themselves...