• Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    The jobs thing i don’t understand, its the distribution of productivity gains that’s the issue, why we keep voting for the same politicians ensuring it goes to the wealthy is the real mystery.

    • Juice@midwest.social
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      2 hours ago

      The distribution of productivity gains and development of new technology are intrinsically and historically connected. New technology is only developed in order to exploit workers, either to make individual something which was previously socialized, or to directly replace workers with industrial advances; and in many cases both.

      Marx said it best: Machines were the weapon employed by the capitalist to quell the revolt of specialized labor.

      This was true for the Luddites and it is true today.

    • danciestlobster@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      Oh, I absolutely agree. But currently, the people in charge of making those decisions have demonstrated moral bankruptcy and will absolutely ensure the productivity gains funnel to the top. Until that changes, AI impact on jobs will likely be devastating.

      And I’m all for changing it. It’s just going to be a long and/or violent process.

      • Juice@midwest.social
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        2 hours ago

        It isnt moral bankruptcy, it is systematic. The capitalist who produces profit stays in business, the capitalist who does not goes bankrupt. It isnt morals of individuals, the dehumanization of the poor by the rich is a symptom of a system that prioritizes profits over humanity.

        Capitalism is, among other things, a system of forced competition.

        I’m glad to hear you are on the right side of it. But in order to be effective we have to name the actual problems. I am above all a humanist, and certainly the capitalist class contains some vile and hateful individuals. That is more clear now than ever before. But we are not made rich or poor by our morality; our morality comes the conditions that dictate whether we are rich or poor.

        Even individualism is structural.

      • runsmooth@kopitalk.net
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        2 days ago

        Productivity gains are not across the board, and is a subject of scrutiny and debate.

        But what AI really has done is basically redistributed American wealth to a smaller group of people, and therefore a smaller pool for the US politicians to focus on satisfying. If there is an AI bubble pop, what market watchers suspect is there’s actually no other American sector to mitigate what is otherwise a recession.