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The people who will reap the rewards of machine work will be those that own machines, directly or indirectly through corporate ownership, or own valuable assets

The people who will reap the rewards of machine work will be those that own machines, directly or indirectly through corporate ownership, or own valuable assets, like mining rights or intellectual property. These people will end up with the lion's share of money. Then who will the machines produce value for? The hyperrich in this situation of course. So a few people will be both the owners and the superrich consumers. From a purely mathematical standpoint, this will result in a vibrant economy. From the perspective of the 99% or 99.995% this will be a disaster. But the history of life is the history of the winners. The only way to change that will involve a serious redesign of civilization from the bottom up. I am for that, but human beings don't seem to be well suited for that task. The mindless muddying of every important political issue of our times by news, corporations and politicians suggests most of the human race is going to take a huge hit and then waste its miserable time fighting about why instead of coming together.

CM30 11y ago
And who exactly will buy their products or services if they have most of the money? Machines don't buy stuff. Selling only to billionaires isn't much of a market. There is the idea of universal income, but then that theoretically just keeps this sort of insanity going longer.
- deleted 11y ago
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- bdavisx 11y ago
  >There is the idea of universal income, but then that theoretically just keeps this sort of insanity going longer. Yeah, that's the real issue, at some point, AI will likely render capitalism as "unmaintainable" - but humans aren't very good at changing, and switching from capitalism to some kind of post-scarcity Star Trek economy is going to "hurt" too many of the rich and powerful for them to agree to it - so it will be fought. It will be fought with the armies that the rich and powerful control - and it will be very, very bloody. I don't think I'll live to see it (I'm almost 50), but I think it will happen.

CM30 11y ago

And who exactly will buy their products or services if they have most of the money? Machines don't buy stuff. Selling only to billionaires isn't much of a market. There is the idea of universal income, but then that theoretically just keeps this sort of insanity going longer.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
bdavisx 11y ago
>There is the idea of universal income, but then that theoretically just keeps this sort of insanity going longer. Yeah, that's the real issue, at some point, AI will likely render capitalism as "unmaintainable" - but humans aren't very good at changing, and switching from capitalism to some kind of post-scarcity Star Trek economy is going to "hurt" too many of the rich and powerful for them to agree to it - so it will be fought. It will be fought with the armies that the rich and powerful control - and it will be very, very bloody. I don't think I'll live to see it (I'm almost 50), but I think it will happen.