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What past productivity improvements and/or economic developments have ever pointed to your fantasy being realized? How will thousands of workers in the Philippi
by marnett 8y ago
What past productivity improvements and/or economic developments have ever pointed to your fantasy being realized? How will thousands of workers in the Philippines and India losing their call center jobs result in "higher and higher living standards?"
I'm sorry but given historical context and popular capitalist intent, this future you speak of is simply fantastical. The working class would sooner be made extinct before a Jetsons-esque future of leisure for all came to fruition.
- CryptoPunk 8y agoI recommend you look at the statistical evidence. The average wage in the developing world has doubled, and the global poverty rate has halved, over the last 20 years. That's all thanks to automation.
- marnett 8y agoWell average wage is a poor metric. Hopefully it is median global household income that has doubled. Taken to its logical extreme, there is no wage whatsoever if a majority of jobs are automated.
- CryptoPunk 8y agoThe wage growth has been widely distributed, though I don't know the median wage statistics off hand. I presume they're approximately equavalent average wage statistics. As for jobs, most of those that existed 200 years ago no longer exist or employ a tiny fraction of people they employed at that time, yet we don't have mass unemployment. Automation has never had a broad-based negative impact on the demand for labor. Its effect has been exactly the opposite.