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> The difference is that now only the owner of a machine profits where before lots of individuals profited. Hello post-industrial/ai/ml capitalism. This devel

• WalterBright 3y ago
  > support what the industrial revolution did to cobblers and weavers Which made cheap shoes and clothes available to everybody. If you want to buy a tailor made shirt, it'll cost you at least $500. And that's still with machine made cloth. What do you think it would cost if the cloth was made by hand by a weaver?
  • e12e 3y ago
    > Which made cheap shoes and clothes available to everybody. I'd argue the efficiency in production led to lower prices - while the concentration in wealth mostly kept buying power/living standards lower for the workers (or; capitalist class reaped an unfair share of productivity gains). I believe commodisation of "knowledge" work will lead to lower prices (and unfair distribution) too.
    • WalterBright 3y ago
      The standard of living of the poor in America went up all through the 19th century. Things like average height and longevity are strong markers of that. Also, average clothing sizes increased dramatically. Go take a look at Fort Williams, and at the clothes in it they preserved. They look like kids' clothes. The same for Civil War uniforms. Larger than the FW clothes, but still looking like kid clothes. I flipped through a high school history book a few years ago, and it insisted that the middle class in America didn't emerge until FDR. This is laughably wrong. It was there from the beginning.