The Boy Who Cried Robot: A World Without Work

[grumbler]

It's not that hard to believe. I've spent some time at Wolfsburg (the HQ of VW). Over a hundred thousand people work there. It's basically an entire city built around the plant where the Beetle was made.

100,000 working in a complex isn't incredible.  100,000 working in a single factory is more so. Foxcomm's complex at Longhua has 15 factories and had about 300,000 empoyees in 2010 (less now).

[Razgovory]

Oh, boy Grumbler is making distinctions without a difference.  Again.

[DGuller]

Oh, boy Grumbler is making distinctions without a difference.  Again.

I can see why you would think that.

[The Minsky Moment]

Oh, boy Grumbler is making a distinction without a difference.  Again.

Fixed. 

[Admiral Yi]

 

[Liep]

Other: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36443512

Go Switzerland!

[Monoriu]

Other: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36443512

Go Switzerland!

I hope they implement it.  If only as a sort of social experiement to see how it turns out.  This can potentially pave the way to how welfare is done in the future.  Would be a lot easier to give everybody a basic income instead of running dozens of overlapping welfare and subsidy schemes, with different rules for each. 

[Zanza]

They voted 78-22 against it.

[garbon]

Rail unions that TfL execs celebrated successfully closing out a lot of unneeded ticket counters. Apparently in our brave new world, businesses should keep positions they don't need in order to keep people employed.

Though with the amount of TfL employees now chilling near the turnstiles, I wonder how many were actually let go.

[Siege]

TL, DR.

Something boring about the end of work. The professiarat in their ivory towers always mulling how the sheeple will find their way to the water. And they are wrong every time.

Bottom line: there is plenty of shit to do. Humans have a nack for finding new ways to make a living. It is called supply side economics. We will work where there will be opportunities. Whatever that may be.

[Admiral Yi]

That's not what supply side economics means.

[The Minsky Moment]

His statement is correct however as a matter of empirical experience with automation over the last 200 years.

[DGuller]

His statement is correct however as a matter of empirical experience with automation over the last 200 years.

That doesn't mean that it will continue to be correct in perpetuity, nor that it's even a good thing if it is correct.  Is endless demand creation the best long-term strategy for humanity?

[The Minsky Moment]

His statement is correct however as a matter of empirical experience with automation over the last 200 years.

That doesn't mean that it will continue to be correct in perpetuity

No but given 200 years worth of mistaken predictions it would suggest the need for a strong evidentiary hurdle.  The fact that right now one of the most notable features of the developed world economy is low productivity growth isn't exactly screaming an imminent robotic singularity.

, nor that it's even a good thing if it is correct.  Is endless demand creation the best long-term strategy for humanity?

Marx and Keynes both said no.  For better or worse, though, human behavior has not accommodated to that view.

[DGuller]

No but given 200 years worth of mistaken predictions it would suggest the need for a strong evidentiary hurdle.  The fact that right now one of the most notable features of the developed world economy is low productivity growth isn't exactly screaming an imminent robotic singularity.

It's impossible to have evidence for a belief that eventually job growth won't be able to keep up with automation.  Humanity has never gone through a period of an accelerating technological innovation.  We've been in the middle of one for the last few centuries, but we haven't yet seen what the end game is.  Therefore, if you demand evidence, you're already stacking the deck.  With some phenomena it's just impossible to have data.