Re:The Long-Term Jobs Killer Is Not China, It’s Automation
by shaftoe on Thursday December 22, 2016 @06:30AM
(#13236567)
Of course wealth will be distributed unevenly if it is created unevenly. Anything else is both unfair and unwise.
Poor people in the United States, today, have a significantly higher standard of living than my grandparents, who were neither uneducated or poor for the time.
Poverty has moved way up Maslow's hierarchy.
If a company is able to automate its facilities to achieve 2X profits with half the workers, you'll have an higher overall GPD, but the created wealth will be shared by a reduced number of people.
People struggling to make a living won't give a damn whether TV has 3 channels or 300, they can travel cheaply around the world and there is a new smartphone model every year.
This has been sustainable up until technological advancement still allowed for enough decently paid unskilled jobs, but it's clear we are past this point.
We are running out of, as you say, "things for people to do".
I don't think these trends can or should be reversed (because they have undeniable benefits), but how to deal with the consequences is a real challenge.