3 ms·

Actually my bachelor's is in economics, I'm not against it, nor am I against technology. Economics is a study of the behavior of people, and people aren't numbe

Actually my bachelor's is in economics, I'm not against it, nor am I against technology. Economics is a study of the behavior of people, and people aren't numbers, so there is a bit of an art to it (but that's another discussion). What we mean is you can't just use the theory and assume the world will happily follow it. In the US, real wages and purchasing power have been falling: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/09/for-most-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/09/for-most-wor... Places like China and India have obviously gained the most because their industrialization is just now. Like another comment said, societies aren't just lines on a graph, they can only handle so much change at once. Its important to think about the people being affected, rather than just assume they fall into place.

witty_username 10y ago
> In the US, real wages and purchasing power have been falling Where did you get the idea that real wages are falling? Even that graph seems to contradict what you're saying. I used BLS data to compute an 8% increase in hourly wages CPI (cost of living)-adjusted from 2007 to 2017. > Economics is a study of the behavior of people, and people aren't numbers Yes, but that's useless. Atoms aren't numbers but we model them with numbers. You can't do anything with an abstract notion of "person". > What we mean is you can't just use the theory and assume the world will happily follow it. You haven't said why the theory is wrong. You can say the exact same thing about evolution. "You can't just use the theory of evolution and assume the world will happily follow it." > rather than just assume they fall into place. I'm not assuming they fall in place; I'm giving reasons why they will benefit in the long-term. With regards to the original submission, see https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/5uo9p3/bill_gates_the_robot_that_takes_your_job_should/ https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/5uo9p3/bill_g... and https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/5uoowk/beating_a_dead_humans_are_horses_robots_dont_pay/ https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/5uoowk/beatin... .

witty_username 10y ago

> In the US, real wages and purchasing power have been falling Where did you get the idea that real wages are falling? Even that graph seems to contradict what you're saying. I used BLS data to compute an 8% increase in hourly wages CPI (cost of living)-adjusted from 2007 to 2017. > Economics is a study of the behavior of people, and people aren't numbers Yes, but that's useless. Atoms aren't numbers but we model them with numbers. You can't do anything with an abstract notion of "person". > What we mean is you can't just use the theory and assume the world will happily follow it. You haven't said why the theory is wrong. You can say the exact same thing about evolution. "You can't just use the theory of evolution and assume the world will happily follow it." > rather than just assume they fall into place. I'm not assuming they fall in place; I'm giving reasons why they will benefit in the long-term. With regards to the original submission, see https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/5uo9p3/bill_gates_the_robot_that_takes_your_job_should/ https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/5uo9p3/bill_g... and https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/5uoowk/beating_a_dead_humans_are_horses_robots_dont_pay/ https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/5uoowk/beatin... .