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Redistribute some wealth from those profiting from automation to the unemployed.

• cmelbye 16y ago
  Why?
  • philwelch 16y ago
    There are lots of arguments for wealth redistribution, but they boil down to two. One of them is that socialism is just. I find that absurd--socialism is unjust. The other argument is as follows: if there are enough of them and they get poor and desperate enough, they will burn down our houses, rape and murder our loved ones, and smash all of our things to bits. If things get bad enough, there will be a revolution and they will kill us all. That is not in our best interest.
    • encoderer 16y ago
      Exactly right. The reason I'm replying, though, is that I wanted to opine that a Social Safety Net != Socialism. Two of the largest vectors of wealth redistriubution in the last couple years are extended UIC and subsidized health/COBRA benefits. I think it's quite difficult to argue that we'd be better of having these 30MM unemployed people without ANY income or ANY health coverage. If for no other reason than that's 30 MM fewer consumers.
  • pbiggar 16y ago
    Assume that the logical conclusion of robots doing people's job is that nobody will have a job. Since that means that nobody will eat (or buy the things that the robots are making), we will need to at some point separate the acts of earning money from doing work. Put another way, we should aim for a world in which nobody works, as the robots are doing all the work.
    • cmelbye 16y ago
      That's not what this is, though. This is just factory workers that put a box on a cart for 70 hours a week losing their jobs because a robot can do it more efficiently. We're far off from robots creating robots that do things like that, so there are always going to be other jobs until then. They can find other jobs that are actually productive and worthwhile. This is why I find redistribution of wealth so ridiculous; there has to be someone working to generate wealth for himself, so why can't others just work like he is so they can generate their own wealth rather than stealing his?
      • pbiggar 16y ago
        This is the start of people being moved out of jobs to be replaced by robots. Think 50 years into the future. > This is why I find redistribution of wealth so ridiculous I don't think HN is the place for socialist vs capitalist debates. The loaded language you are using, such as 'stealing', completely ignores a massively complex debate. The correct balance of 'stealing' vs 'starving in the street' has eluded the world's smartest people for decades; I wouldn't expect to solve it in this comment box.