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Re:The Next Industrial Revolution Could Put Millions Out of ... by zubat on Thursday September 29, 2016 @10:51AM (#12605703)
It's not that it won't correct, it's that the correction offers no guarantee of being humane.

In the 20th century, the population of horses (in the US) started declining rapidly, from a high of over 20 million in 1920 to under 5 million in 1960. Industry decided the horse was unnecessary after thousands of years of history, thus they were slaughtered in short order.

The only difference between me and a horse from the market's view is that I do different jobs and consume human goods. To the extent that I am necessary it is because the market will need someone to move goods and services to, but left to its own devices it might well decide to sell weapons that I get killed with. Markets are honest, not smart.

Re:The Next Industrial Revolution Could Put Millions Out of ... by daniel_levine on Thursday September 29, 2016 @11:16AM (#12605920)
Citation on horse slaughtering in the mid-1900s that probably was relatively unrelated to the Great Depressions? Legitimately interested.
Re:The Next Industrial Revolution Could Put Millions Out of ... by zubat on Thursday September 29, 2016 @11:44AM (#12606137)
I don't have a detailed source on hand for the slaughtering operations specifically, but this is a good overview article of where the meat went:

https://priceonomics.com/when-americans-ate-horse-meat/

Re:The Next Industrial Revolution Could Put Millions Out of ... by daniel_levine on Thursday September 29, 2016 @11:58AM (#12606278)
Just to be clear for everyone who doesn't click through. The car was one (and seemingly a very small one) amongst many reasons people ate horses, coupled with varying economic recessions, shortages of other meat, and changing consumer taste.
Re:The Next Industrial Revolution Could Put Millions Out of ... by maxerickson on Thursday September 29, 2016 @12:21PM (#12606495)
Yeah, over 40 years it would be easy to reduce the number of horses simply by attrition.