4 ms·

The "you" in the article only applies to the likely extremely small percentage of the population still in the middle class and employed. The vast majority of t

by VLM 12y ago

The "you" in the article only applies to the likely extremely small percentage of the population still in the middle class and employed. The vast majority of the population will be unemployed, living in cardboard boxes down by the river, at least in between wars and revolutions requiring cannon fodder. And a very small "end of the roman republic" style class will own absolutely everything so its not going to be "your house" from the article, everything will be rented and monetized down to the tee shirt from the article. One big company store. "Maximizing the perks of the fourth industrial revolution will require massive cooperation across corporate boundaries" Obvious OP has never worked at an actual megacorp job. The best analogy I can provide to my experience is its very much like being an ancient gladiator without the death and blood. I fight the other departments for my faction because anyone who stops fighting and sabotage will be consumed cannibal style by the non-pacifists. Normally this would result in a less screwed up firm wiping out the megacorp, but once the megacorp (and its friends) own the government and the financial system, that will be made impossible. Its not bad. Its not literal gladiatorial combat so its not physically risky or stressful, and the business model and job are extremely stable. It superficially seems like it would be boring to never really do anything, yet, oddly enough, with a lack of micromanagement comes liberation, exciting new tools and techniques, thus better fighters who almost accidentally get to play with exciting new stuff. Those who are about to die salute you, Caesar. Well, not die for another 40 years or so, hopefully, and my manager is pretty cool and her name isn't Caesar. But same general idea, corporate spam is just SPQR and all that. We haven't quite figured out the paperless office yet, for example. So I wouldn't worry about this for some decades / centuries. We did recently upgrade from XP to 7 on the desktops, change does happen, although very slowly (LOL at the 2025, maybe 2125)

nine_k 12y ago
> The vast majority of the population will be unemployed, living in cardboard boxes down by the river Who is going to consume all the goods that the machines produce? Who is going to buy these, and how? However much you might not like factory owners, they are not likely to deliberately shoot themselves in the foot.
- marcosdumay 12y ago
  Why do you think the factory owners care about people consuming his production? What will those people offer him for it?
  - Phlarp 12y ago
    uh, money?
    - logfromblammo 12y ago
      Currency is the intermediate trade good. Currency is only worth what you can buy with it. If nobody makes anything, no amount of money can buy anything. If the only people making things are the rich folks who own production capital, they can only trade with each other. If they are not producing the things that rich people want, they can't trade. Imagine a degenerate world where there are two rich factory owners and 7 billion unemployed people. One rich owner produces food with robots, enough to feed the whole world at $0.01 per meal. The other produces potable water with robots, enough to supply the whole world at $0.01 per cubic meter. Every day, one richie trades a day's worth of meals to the other, who trades a day's worth of water back. The 7 billion povs can produce food and water, but they cannot compete on price. Even the cheapest pov-made food or drink trades much more expensively than the factory goods. Their problem is that very little that the povs make is worth anything to the factory owners. They, too, would prefer to get their goods from the factories. Every last pov is relegated to subsistence production, for personal use. The only way out is to produce a trade good or service that a richie would prefer to richie-made goods and services. In this degenerate world, the most commonly sold service is likely going to be "not murdering you in your sleep and taking control of your factory the next day". And that is why it is important to care about what people can trade.
      - TeMPOraL 12y ago
        > In this degenerate world, the most commonly sold service is likely going to be "not murdering you in your sleep and taking control of your factory the next day". Which will be solved by the third richie who has a military drone production and maintenance facility.

by VLM 12y ago

nine_k 12y ago

> The vast majority of the population will be unemployed, living in cardboard boxes down by the river Who is going to consume all the goods that the machines produce? Who is going to buy these, and how? However much you might not like factory owners, they are not likely to deliberately shoot themselves in the foot.

marcosdumay 12y ago
Why do you think the factory owners care about people consuming his production? What will those people offer him for it?
- Phlarp 12y ago
  uh, money?
  - logfromblammo 12y ago
    Currency is the intermediate trade good. Currency is only worth what you can buy with it. If nobody makes anything, no amount of money can buy anything. If the only people making things are the rich folks who own production capital, they can only trade with each other. If they are not producing the things that rich people want, they can't trade. Imagine a degenerate world where there are two rich factory owners and 7 billion unemployed people. One rich owner produces food with robots, enough to feed the whole world at $0.01 per meal. The other produces potable water with robots, enough to supply the whole world at $0.01 per cubic meter. Every day, one richie trades a day's worth of meals to the other, who trades a day's worth of water back. The 7 billion povs can produce food and water, but they cannot compete on price. Even the cheapest pov-made food or drink trades much more expensively than the factory goods. Their problem is that very little that the povs make is worth anything to the factory owners. They, too, would prefer to get their goods from the factories. Every last pov is relegated to subsistence production, for personal use. The only way out is to produce a trade good or service that a richie would prefer to richie-made goods and services. In this degenerate world, the most commonly sold service is likely going to be "not murdering you in your sleep and taking control of your factory the next day". And that is why it is important to care about what people can trade.
    - TeMPOraL 12y ago
      > In this degenerate world, the most commonly sold service is likely going to be "not murdering you in your sleep and taking control of your factory the next day". Which will be solved by the third richie who has a military drone production and maintenance facility.