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People who kept doing things the old inefficient way will see their wages go down. If a worker can make ten times the widgets with newer technology, the amount
by stretchwithme 12y ago
People who kept doing things the old inefficient way will see their wages go down.
If a worker can make ten times the widgets with newer technology, the amount that can be charged per widget, and thus the amount a worker can be paid to produce each one, has to drop eventually.
- stretchwithme 12y agoOf course, the upside is that the worker thatchers up with technology eventually gets their widgets for 1/10 of the cost. And this is literally true. Cars, for example, used to cost ten times as much. You can buy a car as reliable as any 1914 model for a few hundred bucks that is more efficient and cheaper to maintain. You can also start it without getting out of the car.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- TeMPOraL 12y agoAnd as the inefficient workers get outcompeted and more skilled competition shows up, the end result is always the same: new widget costs 1/10 of the original costs, those who make them earn the same amount of money as they did before, but now 9/10 of workers are without a job. It has always been like that and it's responsible for the age of plenty we live in - but the problem of today is that those 9/10 of workers without a job are increasingly unable to find another one, as everything gets slowly automated away.
- stretchwithme 12y ago9/10 of workers are not out of a job. Unemployment is not 90%.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoThey didn't use to be, but - looking at the rate of automation - they're about to.