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The best way for everyone to live a decent life is for our technology to keep reducing costs of everything. Unfortunately, a big driver of costs is employees. B
by ITB 3y ago
The best way for everyone to live a decent life is for our technology to keep reducing costs of everything. Unfortunately, a big driver of costs is employees. But if we replace all people, then medicine and education become very cheap. Can’t have it both ways though. It hurts while you’re in the middle of it.
- faeriechangling 3y agoA society where costs are low is a society where inequality inevitably becomes more severe. If you get rid of the cost of employees for pharmaceutical prices, pharmaceuticals prices don’t go down, R&D may go up somewhat (since ROI would improve) but in reality pharma’s costs going down will only make them redistribute less money to the local economy through wages. The whole neoliberal idea that if you reduce costs to consumers (particularly those related to wages and staffing levels), public welfare improves, was always totally naive to the reality that this approach generally tends to turn a blind eye towards consolidation of economic power and a decline in the negotiating power of the commons. You can even create a tragedy of the commons amongst these corporations where they all grow slowly because of collective over-exploitation.