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The only people who really benefit from innovation are entrepreneurs, investors and shareholders. The majority of the population are actually worse off because
by jondubois 10y ago
The only people who really benefit from innovation are entrepreneurs, investors and shareholders. The majority of the population are actually worse off because of innovation (at least this is the case right now - The value is just not trickling down).
The worst part of this will come when even highly educated people start losing their jobs to machines... We will have a situation where entrepreneurs, investors and company shareholders will earn massive incomes while many of the world's smartest people (who fell through the cracks of the system) will struggle to make ends meet - I think many engineers already feel that this starting to happen now.
Money used to go mostly to employees, but as employees become less valuable in the workplace, it will go mostly to shareholders (owners of capital). This is why tax on income is making increasingly less sense - We need a tax on capital holdings instead.
When you consider the massive role that luck plays in becoming a successful entrepreneur, it does bring into question the fairness of the entire system.
The balance is shifting; we are moving from an economic system which not so long ago seemed 'mostly fair' to one which is becoming 'mostly unfair'. Maybe something like Universal Basic Income would be a good first step.
What we have now is no longer capitalism, it's increasingly an Oligopoly.
- mavhc 10y agoThe majority of the population now don't starve when there's bad weather, have indoor plumbing, healthcare, don't die from playing tennis without socks. What do we need money for now, and why? Houses mostly, because a) hand built, and b) scarcity.
- mmcconnell1618 10y agoIn case anyone else was wondering about the tennis without socks death: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/coolidge.asp http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/coolidge.asp
- stcredzero 10y agoThat's only true in the short term. Historically, innovation has always killed jobs in the short term but created them in the long term.
- merpnderp 10y agoEveryone directly benefits from most innovations. Even this one will see the 318 million people directly benefit from drastically lower transportation costs to their goods, where ~2 million will need retraining, or likely transitioning into related jobs. I used to be a truck driver and before and even during, I worked the dock. The only difference between me and the guys on the dock was I could always pass a pee test, I'd spent 5 minutes studying the CDL test manual, and I spent an hour passing both parts of the CDL test which was about as difficult as 6th grade spelling tests. And cheaper truck transport will increase the demand for dock workers.
- PedroBatista 10y agoThat's why you'll see greenhorns drivers doing stupid mistakes and barely being able of backing off a truck. The problem is the CDL, and the "schools" not the business.