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"as things get cheaper because fewer people were used to make it" You're saying price drops when cost drops, and that's empirically not true. Price drops when
by VikingCoder 9y ago
"as things get cheaper because fewer people were used to make it"
You're saying price drops when cost drops, and that's empirically not true.
Price drops when demand drops, or when supply increases.
When the cost drops, then the producer just gets more profit. And if they're wise, they buy or merge with their slightly less efficient competitors, because collusion is illegal, but no one is stopping M&A these days. And for necessary goods like food, water, shelter, clothing, it's not like the demand drops much over time, so the demand stays where it was (or grows with population.)
Worker productivity is through the roof. That's automation.
Real wages are going down. That's evidence. What happens when they keep dropping? "Nothing changes," is your answer?
- notahacker 9y agoAs I said, it's the neo-Luddites saying "but if you project these country-specific short term trend lines forward indefinitely, we'll all be unemployed...". Whereas we've got 200 years of data confirming the basic logic that the relative prices of basic food and clothing get much cheaper as lower costs increase competitors' ability to supply, something I'm genuinely amazed you can argue doesn't happen. Sure, individual companies can prop up their monopoly profit margins through IP protection or M&A or positioning themselves as a luxury item, but only in the same sense that water can be forced, in certain circumstances, to flow uphill.
- VikingCoder 9y agoStop putting words in my mouth, and we can maybe have a real conversation. I'm not advocating protectionism, so that's not a fruitful branch of this conversation. Food and clothing are cheaper - that's great. The barriers to entry there are pretty low. How much cheaper is healthcare? Housing? Cars? College? Is there not enough competition in any of those? (Obviously not.)