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Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by kiba on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @08:01PM (#10300757)
And what if meaningful works get eliminated by machines?
Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by jdreaver on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @08:13PM (#10300832)
If absolutely everything useful is done by machines, then every good or service will be so stupid cheap you won't need a job.
Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by mwnz on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @09:20PM (#10301096)
I have heard this utopian fantasy before. It's kinda laughable. Remember, greed will never disappear. Greed breaks the utopian hypothesis.
Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by aianus on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @10:57PM (#10301442)
> Remember, greed will never disappear.

I agree, but that's actually a good thing. How do you get more than someone else if everything is made for free by machines? New jobs would have to appear that produce handmade expensive goods and services that the rich can use to distinguish themselves from the poor :)

We're living in a lite version of that utopian world today, actually. It's pretty damn cheap to live in Canada or the US if you don't buy anything but food, water, and shelter. You'll find that most of your dollars today are spent on luxurious crap to improve your standing versus other people (new cars, rent in a fashionable urban center, new clothes, etc.)

In many socialist countries welfare is good enough that you can live quite healthy without ever working at all!

But we've always found new things to work on and purchase and we will continue to do so. They'll just be more meaningful than the repetitive crap most people have to do to eke out a living today.

Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by mwnz on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @11:15PM (#10301514)
> We're living in a lite version of that utopian world today, actually. It's pretty damn cheap to live in Canada or the US

Well, this is a prime example of why our trajectory is not converging to utopia. 'Things' are cheap, yet income inequality is extremely high in the countries. 'Things' will always come at a cost. Those who profit in the absence of labor will be a small subset of the population. The land owners, the farmers, those with political control. Sound familiar?

Welfare may be good enough in socialist democratic countries to live in relative comfort, but that is being subsidized by those who work (and I agree with this strategy). The assumption you are making is that if labor were removed from the equation, these countries would continue to exist as they are. I disagree with this premise.

We have always found new things to work on. But at the same time, jobs have become more monotonous as they are minified. The rate of automation is exponential, which hasn't been seen before. The assumption that we will all move into knowledge work is a poor assumption. Bob the builder wants to use his hands, not his brain. And good on him for being him.

Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by Kalium on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @08:08PM (#10300806)
What meaningful work has ever been eliminated by machines? Do you have examples?
Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by yrro on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @08:11PM (#10300818)
To rephrase the question in terms you may agree with: what should happen when there is not enough meaningful work to keep everyone employed?

(I believe we reached this point some time ago)

Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by Kalium on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @08:13PM (#10300828)
The bounds of the human imagination, and its possible expressions, are functionally infinite. Then it is only a question of resources. I don't agree that we've reached this point.

In a post-scarcity world, I don't think the problem of insufficient meaningful work is likely to occur. There will always be a kitten to be played with, art to be made, research to be performed, and more.

Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by nulltype on Tuesday September 29, 2015 @08:45PM (#10300966)
Where are all these purfessional kitten-playing-with jobs?
Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by mdpopescu on Wednesday September 30, 2015 @10:22AM (#10304152)
I know several people who make a great living from playing card games (Hearthstone). This would have sounded insane to me 20 years ago.
Re:Temporary Visas, Meant to Import Talent, Help Ship Jobs A... by Kalium on Wednesday September 30, 2015 @01:33PM (#10305627)
I know several people who make their livings running a cat cafe.