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I worry about the extent to which too-cheap labor night slow the development of labor-saving technology. It's ultimately this technology that improves per-capit

I worry about the extent to which too-cheap labor night slow the development of labor-saving technology. It's ultimately this technology that improves per-capita productivity and keeps us ahead of Malthus. In an environment where you can throw bodies at problems, why bother with more-expensive automation?

fosk 8y ago
Some people say that The Roman Empire - had it lasted without any Dark Age - could have given us mobile phones 1000 years ago. Some others say that it wouldn’t have happened, because they had too many slaves and cheap (or free) labor disincentivized optimizations and technology investments.