this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Showerthoughts

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[–] BetaDoggo_ 4 points 2 hours ago

The issue isn't really "too busy with jobs", it's not having enough monetary resources to take care of a large non-working population. The fear with AI is that it will take the comfy, high paying office jobs and demote the non c-suites down to manual labor. Unless corporate taxes are increased dramatically (unlikely) many of the young working class will be stretched thin trying to pay for their parent's care.

[–] Diplomjodler3 4 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 27 minutes ago)

It would be possible to build a society where automation is used to provide a better life for everybody. But that is not the society we live in. Right now we're moving towards neo-feudalism, where everything belongs to a tiny ruling class and everybody else fights for scraps.

[–] plz1 18 points 7 hours ago

AI isn't going to guarantee those young people the income the jobs it is replacing would. AI as a part of capitalism is about cutting costs, not to be beneficial to society. It may have that as a side effect, but not enough to account for the economic impact of job losses on hose impacted by those losses.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Old people don't pay much in taxes and AI doesn't pay tax at all, so without the tax revenue of regular working class people all the social security benefits that the old people rely on will go bankrupt.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Hmm, that sounds sus. A society suddenly experiencing less labour demand because of technological advancement is a society that is, overall, enjoying the same level of wealth without the cost. If those benefits can't be used to help those who are worse off due to the change, then it is some beneficiaries within the society that are causing the harm.

[–] LovableSidekick 11 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

They probably aren't the same people. I'm reminded of Rush Limbaugh's habit of pretending a group of individuals were like one illogical person - for example, "Why do women get mad when men look at them as sex objects, but they wear such revealing clothing? If you walk around practically naked, guess what - men are going to look at you! Make up your mind!!" The fallacy is when groups of people with their own individual ideas and attitudes, who don't necessarily agree with each other, are treated like they're one irrational person.

[–] MissJinx 2 points 7 hours ago

the fear depends on the job, I for once welcome our AI overlords to do most if not all my job for me.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think anyone is worried about there being too many old people for young people to look after. I believe you're confusing that for the very serious issue, being that there won't be enough young people financially supporting social services to adequately fund them to meet the needs of the aging population. In that sense, AI automating jobs directly exacerbates the problem, because less young people working means less taxes funding things like social security and Medicare in the US.

[–] Aeao 29 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

See the problem isn't that robots might replace my job, it's that we live in a system where I need to work to eat.

[–] Serinus 14 points 15 hours ago

They don't cancel out because any gains are eaten by the top 0.1%.

Losses are social; gains are private. It's all about reverting labor practices towards 1890 until we get labor riots again. This time maybe they can murder union people and laborers with tech and robots, and don't need to be as scared of the masses as they used to be.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 16 hours ago (4 children)

I for one cannot wait for robots to be able to do all the mundane tasks, like being a cashier or truck driver, så that people can work in sectors that produce more value per hour spent. This is just an opinion tho :)

[–] corroded 25 points 15 hours ago

If these jobs become automated, that doesn't automatically create more "high level" jobs. It just creates unemployment.

[–] shalafi 5 points 13 hours ago

Some people can't handle a job any more complex. I worked at a payroll firm that had low paying clients. Before that, I never really understood how many stupid people there are.

Fuck me, we went to sign up a new client and most of the people there were unable to read, struggled like hell with the online paperwork. Not saying they weren't computer literate (they weren't), they couldn't make out the words on the screen.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 15 hours ago

I like doing jobs that leave me with cognitive surplus at the end of the day.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

They wouldn't cancel each other out, because the number of young people able to take care of the aging population will still be too few. Add to that the fact that pay won't go up with automation, because it never does, and the problem is still Capitalism and its activists strangling us to death.