5 ms·

"While we’re on the road to our Star Trek future, but before we finally get there, the rich are going to get richer—because they own the robots—and the rest of

by iamben 9y ago

"While we’re on the road to our Star Trek future, but before we finally get there, the rich are going to get richer—because they own the robots—and the rest of us are going to get poorer because we’ll be out of jobs. Unless we figure out what we’re going to do about that, the misery of workers over the next few decades will be far worse than anything the Industrial Revolution produced." It was interesting reading some of the comments on the Paradise Papers yesterday. Lots of people commenting they feel helpless and frustrated in this and situations like this. The rich have the ability to break the law seemingly at will and never get punished. The rest can spend 18 months in prison for smoking pot, or being black and in the wrong place. I don't pay taxes, I'm in trouble. The rich can afford to just not pay them. etc. etc. But it was also pointed out that no one is likely to do anything about it, because any outrage will blow over as soon as the press start on the next set of scandalous headlines, and unless your life is (/all our lives are) disrupted in a big enough way that you feel the need to rock the boat - you won't rock the boat. Which makes me ask, will the robot revolution be the thing that rocks the boat? Distrust of government (corporations / power) and quiet dissatisfaction seems to grow by the day. And yet - no one reacts, because the status quo is just enough. But if you start to remove jobs without having a social state in place to cope with it, and every day you're looking at the perfectly curated Instagram lives of those who have everything - what's going to happen? Do we hit breaking point? I don't really know. Interesting and somewhat scary times, though.

Gustomaximus 9y ago
Have a read though this timeline of Strikes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_strikes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_strikes History often gives good context for the future. What really stands out to me is how often the government are willing to use military/police force to protect business, and how willing these services are to use violence against their own countrymen. my optimist hopes the internet can foster intellect, fact sharing for what works best in societies and access for all to this discussion. The realist looks at it today seeing increased manipulation and tribalism... Time will tell!
- googletazer 9y ago
  Why wouldn't they be? They know where their bread is buttered. I think eventually the pendulum will swing back to better uses of the internet than trolling and crappy media
GVIrish 9y ago
I fear that what will happen is that the unemployed/underemployed masses will be manipulated into focusing their frustrations on culture wars, kinda like what is happening now and has happened in the past. 'Those people are taking your jobs!' 'Those people are amoral and lazy!' 'Those people are terrorists!' 'Those people are taking benefits that were meant for you!' I mean we're at a point in history where there are many people who are voting for politicians who are brazenly seeking to destroy healthcare, give even bigger tax cuts to rich people, tear down regulatory agencies that protect people from pollution, fraud, and unsafe food. To some degree some people believe that 'regulation kills jobs' but I'm pretty sure most people want clean air, safe food, fair education policy, affordable healthcare, etc. But because of all of the political tribalism and the painting of the other side as outright villains, people are supporting politicians who are pushing policies that hurt them directly. As long as there are convenient scapegoats and wedge issues that can be exploited it's going to be hard to turn public opinion towards reining in the oligarchy. Especially since the super rich have much more sophisticated tools for regulatory capture and manipulation of sentiment now.
- iamben 9y ago
  Anecdotally, I think people are voting for people who don't 'feel' like a politician. It doesn't so much matter what they're saying, more than they're addressing the specific issue that upsets you, and distancing themselves from "those in power". Politicians (in general) seem so far removed from everyday life, anyone promising to act for the everyman, and distancing themselves from 'establishment' is going to get some kind of traction. Add clever uses of technology into the mix and it gets pretty potent.
  - Piskvorrr 9y ago
    In other words, marketing is king, content is irrelevant.
- crdoconnor 9y ago
  >I fear that what will happen is that the unemployed/underemployed masses will be manipulated into focusing their frustrations on culture wars, kinda like what is happening now and has happened in the past. 'Those people are taking your jobs!' 'Those people are amoral and lazy!' 'Those people are terrorists!' 'Those people are taking benefits that were meant for you!' That's partly what this job-stealing automation hysteria is about. Robots are also a convenient scapegoat.
PopsiclePete 9y ago
I'm definitely not likely to do something about it. My income is growing at a nice pace, I can afford all the necessities, plus vacations and leisure activities. I live in a miraculous age of fast travel and global connectivity. It's the Global Economy, the Knowledge Economy, and I'm one of the "winners". I imagine most people who post here are on the "winning" side as well. So why would I rock the boat? Protest? Protest what? Are these "rich parasites" even breaking the law? I don't know, honestly. Their lawyers are probably pretty convincing. Maybe the laws have loopholes, maybe I'd be exploiting those loopholes myself if I knew how to work the system. "While we’re on the road to our Star Trek future, but before we finally get there, the rich are going to get richer—because they own the robots—and the rest of us are going to get poorer because we’ll be out of jobs. Unless we figure out what we’re going to do about that, the misery of workers over the next few decades will be far worse than anything the Industrial Revolution produced." Marx predicted all this, to a T. It really is the logical end-game of capitalism. I have a feeling Marx is going to become very relevant again. We'll see if the NFL, Netflix, and cheap food will be enough to contain that genie this time.

by iamben 9y ago

Gustomaximus 9y ago

Have a read though this timeline of Strikes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_strikes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_strikes History often gives good context for the future. What really stands out to me is how often the government are willing to use military/police force to protect business, and how willing these services are to use violence against their own countrymen. my optimist hopes the internet can foster intellect, fact sharing for what works best in societies and access for all to this discussion. The realist looks at it today seeing increased manipulation and tribalism... Time will tell!

googletazer 9y ago
Why wouldn't they be? They know where their bread is buttered. I think eventually the pendulum will swing back to better uses of the internet than trolling and crappy media

GVIrish 9y ago

I fear that what will happen is that the unemployed/underemployed masses will be manipulated into focusing their frustrations on culture wars, kinda like what is happening now and has happened in the past. 'Those people are taking your jobs!' 'Those people are amoral and lazy!' 'Those people are terrorists!' 'Those people are taking benefits that were meant for you!' I mean we're at a point in history where there are many people who are voting for politicians who are brazenly seeking to destroy healthcare, give even bigger tax cuts to rich people, tear down regulatory agencies that protect people from pollution, fraud, and unsafe food. To some degree some people believe that 'regulation kills jobs' but I'm pretty sure most people want clean air, safe food, fair education policy, affordable healthcare, etc. But because of all of the political tribalism and the painting of the other side as outright villains, people are supporting politicians who are pushing policies that hurt them directly. As long as there are convenient scapegoats and wedge issues that can be exploited it's going to be hard to turn public opinion towards reining in the oligarchy. Especially since the super rich have much more sophisticated tools for regulatory capture and manipulation of sentiment now.

iamben 9y ago
Anecdotally, I think people are voting for people who don't 'feel' like a politician. It doesn't so much matter what they're saying, more than they're addressing the specific issue that upsets you, and distancing themselves from "those in power". Politicians (in general) seem so far removed from everyday life, anyone promising to act for the everyman, and distancing themselves from 'establishment' is going to get some kind of traction. Add clever uses of technology into the mix and it gets pretty potent.
- Piskvorrr 9y ago
  In other words, marketing is king, content is irrelevant.
crdoconnor 9y ago
>I fear that what will happen is that the unemployed/underemployed masses will be manipulated into focusing their frustrations on culture wars, kinda like what is happening now and has happened in the past. 'Those people are taking your jobs!' 'Those people are amoral and lazy!' 'Those people are terrorists!' 'Those people are taking benefits that were meant for you!' That's partly what this job-stealing automation hysteria is about. Robots are also a convenient scapegoat.

PopsiclePete 9y ago

I'm definitely not likely to do something about it. My income is growing at a nice pace, I can afford all the necessities, plus vacations and leisure activities. I live in a miraculous age of fast travel and global connectivity. It's the Global Economy, the Knowledge Economy, and I'm one of the "winners". I imagine most people who post here are on the "winning" side as well. So why would I rock the boat? Protest? Protest what? Are these "rich parasites" even breaking the law? I don't know, honestly. Their lawyers are probably pretty convincing. Maybe the laws have loopholes, maybe I'd be exploiting those loopholes myself if I knew how to work the system. "While we’re on the road to our Star Trek future, but before we finally get there, the rich are going to get richer—because they own the robots—and the rest of us are going to get poorer because we’ll be out of jobs. Unless we figure out what we’re going to do about that, the misery of workers over the next few decades will be far worse than anything the Industrial Revolution produced." Marx predicted all this, to a T. It really is the logical end-game of capitalism. I have a feeling Marx is going to become very relevant again. We'll see if the NFL, Netflix, and cheap food will be enough to contain that genie this time.