Replaceable but Employed: Automation and the Meaning of Work

pgt•about 1 hour ago

Does anybody have a link where I don't need to download a PDF and zoom and it's still messed up for reading? I just want HTML, mannn.

pydry•about 1 hour ago

This paper created some neat theoretical mathematical models but I can't see anything that indicates that they have anything to do with reality.

I thought they'd come up with a neat mechanism that looked at actual wages in real companies where automation was introduced, but no. It's all spherical cows.

jdw64•about 1 hour ago

>Automation can, therefore, reduce the value of work before it eliminates jobs.

As automation takes over, the value of labor collapses, and workers' market bargaining power under capitalism is the first to crumble. Ultimately, this drives up the value of real assets. I agree that tech companies can profit and gain the upper hand in negotiations simply by demonstrating a machine before licensing it, as this alone diminishes the value of workers. I am seriously worried these days.

atomicnumber3•about 1 hour ago

But what's the point of real assets if you can't do anything with them? No point in holding real estate if nobody can afford to rent/buy your houses or go do whatever money-spending thing you put on your commercial lots.

ArcHound•about 1 hour ago

That sounds like a Q4 problem.

meindnoch•39 minutes ago

Robots will use real estate as rain shelter after the human occupants have starved to death.

jdw64•about 1 hour ago

The tenants might change in the future. Right now they are individuals, but perhaps properties will be leased to build power grids or autonomous logistics warehouses. Also, if techno-feudalism accelerates and public purchasing power collapses, leading to the introduction of UBI, I think most of that money will just end up going toward essential housing costs anyway. In fact, if you look at recent trends in real estate, commercial properties are where the big money is being made, aren't they?

outside1234•about 1 hour ago

Who is going to pay for UBI?

mcmcmc•about 1 hour ago

> Also, if techno-feudalism accelerates and public purchasing power collapses, leading to the introduction of UBI

This always makes me laugh. What motivation would the oligarchs have to pay out UBI? If they can automate the labor who needs more mouths to feed? They’ll push undesirables into ghettos and start a slow genocide of starvation and disease.

Replaceable but Employed: Automation and the Meaning of Work

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