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Just imagine the imense wealth that will be generated if we can displace 99% of the workforce from what they are doing now. This is something to cheer, not to f

Just imagine the imense wealth that will be generated if we can displace 99% of the workforce from what they are doing now. This is something to cheer, not to feel doomed.

adamsmith143 4y ago
You think that what, the benevolent trillionaires will give money to the unemployed out of the goodness of their hearts?
- astrange 4y ago
  It’s not possible to have “trillionaires” if the economy is so small it has unemployed people in it. That’s literally the plot of Atlas Shrugged, not real life.
  - adamsmith143 4y ago
    ? We're on the verge creating the first trillionaire in the next few decades with our current economy which, gasp, has millions of unemployed people in it.
- soup10 4y ago
  That's more a discussion of wealth distribution, systems of government and the flaws of capitalism. Theoretically speaking if you free human labor through the use of machines you're creating wealth because the same or greater output can be achieved with less resources and those resources can be allocated elsewhere. Of course some people believe that machines will replace all jobs eventually but historically that has not been the case. Generally new technology makes some jobs obsolete but humans adapt and find different ways to contribute to society.
- Ajedi32 4y ago
  We've already replaced 99% of the workforce once. Now instead of subsistence farming, people can live, eat basically any kind of food they want, own a multi-room house, and fly around the world once or twice a year on a vacation, all in exchange for less labor than that same person would have needed to expend to simply not starve a few thousand years ago. Is that because billionaires "give [you] money out of the goodness of their hearts"? Are you unemployed because all those farming jobs have been eliminated? Obviously not. Rather, the efficiency gains of modern infrastructure have simply made your labor that much more valuable.
  - hnfong 4y ago
    Ironically, you're literally describing the 1% lifestyle. (That includes me, but I'm aware that most people don't get to enjoy the great lifestyle you mention.)
goatlover 4y ago
How are 99% of us making money? The government is going to redistribute all the wealth to us?
- jessechahal 4y ago
  Most likely they will have to. The governments main role is to make sure the majority of people can live together in a society. If a something as suddenly as 99% of people becoming unemployment overnight the governing bodies will have no choice but to redistribute wealth, kill/enforce any rioters, or dissolve into anarchy.
- Ajedi32 4y ago
  No, you continue to work for a living, just on something else that's 100x more valuable than before (and you consequently become 100x more wealthy than before). It's already happened once. 99% of farming jobs that existed a few thousand years ago now long gone. Are we all unemployed and starving because of that? No, in fact we're all far more wealthy than we would have been before all that technological progress was made. We just don't think of it as wealth, and instead complain that the guy next door has more than us and the government ought to do something about that, because he clearly wouldn't be that rich if not for all this darned technological progress taking our jobs.
  - hnfong 4y ago
    > No, you continue to work for a living, just on something else that's 100x more valuable than before This just doesn't make sense. If there's something I can (want to and capable of) work on that's 100x more valuable than what I'm doing now, why isn't somebody hiring me to do that now? The farming example goes like this -- you may think food is less valuable than your phone because it costs less. But that's just because supply is greater and it costs less to produce, so the cost is lower. Similarly, if some AI is capable of writing better software than I do now, I don't get to choose another job that pays 100x. It's just that my current job will cost less, and if I continue doing my work, it will be rewarded at 1/100x due to competition from cheap AI. Perhaps I'll be flipping burgers at restaurants and it will be 100x pay compared with writing software. I won't be getting 100x more wealthy though!
xg15 4y ago
Did you miss an /s?

Just imagine the imense wealth that will be generated if we can displace 99% of the workforce from what they are doing now. This is something to cheer, not to feel doomed.

adamsmith143 4y ago

You think that what, the benevolent trillionaires will give money to the unemployed out of the goodness of their hearts?

astrange 4y ago
It’s not possible to have “trillionaires” if the economy is so small it has unemployed people in it. That’s literally the plot of Atlas Shrugged, not real life.
- adamsmith143 4y ago
  ? We're on the verge creating the first trillionaire in the next few decades with our current economy which, gasp, has millions of unemployed people in it.
soup10 4y ago
That's more a discussion of wealth distribution, systems of government and the flaws of capitalism. Theoretically speaking if you free human labor through the use of machines you're creating wealth because the same or greater output can be achieved with less resources and those resources can be allocated elsewhere. Of course some people believe that machines will replace all jobs eventually but historically that has not been the case. Generally new technology makes some jobs obsolete but humans adapt and find different ways to contribute to society.
Ajedi32 4y ago
We've already replaced 99% of the workforce once. Now instead of subsistence farming, people can live, eat basically any kind of food they want, own a multi-room house, and fly around the world once or twice a year on a vacation, all in exchange for less labor than that same person would have needed to expend to simply not starve a few thousand years ago. Is that because billionaires "give [you] money out of the goodness of their hearts"? Are you unemployed because all those farming jobs have been eliminated? Obviously not. Rather, the efficiency gains of modern infrastructure have simply made your labor that much more valuable.
- hnfong 4y ago
  Ironically, you're literally describing the 1% lifestyle. (That includes me, but I'm aware that most people don't get to enjoy the great lifestyle you mention.)

goatlover 4y ago

How are 99% of us making money? The government is going to redistribute all the wealth to us?

jessechahal 4y ago
Most likely they will have to. The governments main role is to make sure the majority of people can live together in a society. If a something as suddenly as 99% of people becoming unemployment overnight the governing bodies will have no choice but to redistribute wealth, kill/enforce any rioters, or dissolve into anarchy.
Ajedi32 4y ago
No, you continue to work for a living, just on something else that's 100x more valuable than before (and you consequently become 100x more wealthy than before). It's already happened once. 99% of farming jobs that existed a few thousand years ago now long gone. Are we all unemployed and starving because of that? No, in fact we're all far more wealthy than we would have been before all that technological progress was made. We just don't think of it as wealth, and instead complain that the guy next door has more than us and the government ought to do something about that, because he clearly wouldn't be that rich if not for all this darned technological progress taking our jobs.
- hnfong 4y ago
  > No, you continue to work for a living, just on something else that's 100x more valuable than before This just doesn't make sense. If there's something I can (want to and capable of) work on that's 100x more valuable than what I'm doing now, why isn't somebody hiring me to do that now? The farming example goes like this -- you may think food is less valuable than your phone because it costs less. But that's just because supply is greater and it costs less to produce, so the cost is lower. Similarly, if some AI is capable of writing better software than I do now, I don't get to choose another job that pays 100x. It's just that my current job will cost less, and if I continue doing my work, it will be rewarded at 1/100x due to competition from cheap AI. Perhaps I'll be flipping burgers at restaurants and it will be 100x pay compared with writing software. I won't be getting 100x more wealthy though!

xg15 4y ago

Did you miss an /s?