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It is kind of working out. People making minimum wage have things that were sci-fi when I was a kid, better than the most expensive attempts the rich made to tr
by noonespecial 16y ago
It is kind of working out. People making minimum wage have things that were sci-fi when I was a kid, better than the most expensive attempts the rich made to try to buy their way in early back in the day.
Global communicators that fit in the pocket, 40 inch high definition flat panel view screens, game systems with unimaginable processing power and graphics. Most people can't even sign up for basic cable without getting a time shifting miracle-machine or a basic cell phone account without being handed a damn tri-corder.
No argument that inequality of wealth is growing rapidly, but its good to remember that total wealth is growing too and even the poorest are benefiting.
What we really need to do is pull all of the parasites out of our health-care services and allow this magic to happen down there as well before the have-nots figure out it doesn't matter whats on your giant TV if you can't afford those patented, insurance inflated, heart pills and decide maybe its time once again to dust off the guillotines for another go at the rich.
- joe_the_user 16y agoI remember a few months back seeing a homeless guy pushing a shopping cart with one hand and talking on a cell phone with the other. But I'm not sure if he thought everything was working out...
- noonespecial 16y agoI did say kind of working out, not working out the way it should (for some definition of should I think we mostly agree on). I'm just saying that automation has made it possible for homeless guys to have cell phones, when before they couldn't. I'm not even floating a guess as to whether or not he'd be homeless if it not for that automation. That's a much larger and more complicated debate. On the balance, I'm still betting that more automation makes better lives for more people, even if it seems to increase inequality in the short run. I wait patiently for the day when mankind looks at himself in a collective mirror and says, "Know what?, everything's so good now that we don't need all of this inequality." I think this is an essential step in man becoming a semi-eternal space-faring species instead of one that just drives itself to extinction.