I highly recommend https://www.versobooks.com/books/3717-automation-and-the-future-of-work https://www.versobooks.com/books/3717-automation-and-the-fut... (or r

I highly recommend https://www.versobooks.com/books/3717-automation-and-the-future-of-work https://www.versobooks.com/books/3717-automation-and-the-fut... (or read https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii119/articles/aaron-benanav-automation-and-the-future-of-work-1 https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii119/articles/aaron-benana...) It's a solid back-to-the-basics refresher. Without making causal guesses, the stats clearly show that demand stopped absorbing increasing supply, the Keynesian feedback loop was broken, and everything went to shit since. The causes seem numerous and intricate but a few observations: - As pointed out in https://phenomenalworld.org/interviews/trade-wars-are-class-wars https://phenomenalworld.org/interviews/trade-wars-are-class-..., everyone trying to be exporters in general leads to a glut. Here is sort of the origins of that, with the US "overproducing" as it exports to a post-WWII destroyed world, then Japan and Germany coming back to try to export more, and then everyone else thereafter. - From the perspective That 1930-1970 is the anomaly, cycles of destruction and rebuilding are a hack to help create enough labor scarcity for society to function better. - We'd be better of making labor scare and compelling investment in physical capital by shrinking the workday than starting world wars!!