You can't stop the evolution of automation, but you can put a complete end to the working class. [View all]
Myth: increased automation will make life better for everyone, and reduce the need for work.
Reality: more people will be put out of work. No jobs means no income for 99% of the unemployed. No income means no food. Automation won't come for free - you won't get robots given to you for free to take care of you. That, and you need to own or rent land in order to have a standard of living. (Homeless people can't farm or build shelters on someone else's property.) Without a job, 99% of people cannot rent or buy property. Without a pot to piss in, nobody's going to let someone squat on their land and let robots create a living for these landless folk. Logically speaking the bridge is out and there is no way to complete the path from the real world to the fantasy world of automation and high productivity leading to a better life for all.
Over the next decade unemployment is projected to rise to from 200 million to 600 million. There are CURRENTLY 1.1 BILLION people either unemployed or working yet living in poverty. They are not, and will not ever share in the benefits of increased automation. Automation is not creating any jobs for them. Yet worker productivity is skyrocketing.
The going argument is that automation and improved productivity will create more jobs and raise everyone's standard of living. No sane person can say that history has ever shown this to be true, except for SOME of the people who still have jobs. The exploding number of global unemployed and poor people, are living testaments to the fact that this argument isn't panning out in reality.
It's not working. To hide behind the "Luddite" word as a means to avoid talking about the fact that the great automation and productivity dream isn't working, is outright intellectual dishonesty. It is a deliberate act of deception. And screaming "You want us all to go back to horses and carts" is a deliberate attempt to bury the plight of the over 200 million global unemployed and declare it irrelevant.
The Religion of Total Automation and Infinite Productivity is based on utopian theories - aka fantasies and myths. Technology is not God; it can be questioned, and limits are a legitimate concept.
Stepping on millions of workers in the name of progress is NOT A LIBERAL POSITION.
= new reply since forum marked as read