Will automation be the final spark that lights up the revolution?
I honestly can't believe that people will sit idle and not question the system when their jobs and careers are replaced by machines and the elite get richer and richer because now they don't have to pay for human workers.
don't underestimate classcucks
just look at all the people who smugly share the "15$ an hour for mcdonalds? cant WAIT for robots to replace you!" posts
corporations will own it all and we will suffer
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As Milton Friedman stated, capitalism should and will implement a universal basic income when automation threatens overall stability.
Or…
Maybe we'll just NOT make robots.
ok ned ludd
the system of wage labour will break down with automation. nobody will be able to buy anything
basic income is just the last gasp of capitalism
This has been happening ever since the industrial revolution, why would people suddenly wake up now?
If it stops porky why would he let it develop?
You need automation to stay competitive?
If we are unprepared for this could the rich instate a new sort of feudal system, seeing as the government or people wouldn't be able to defend against an army of self-replicating AI soldiers controlled by a small group of people?
Can't be competitive without customers.
do you realize that we are basically there? US and Russia already have remotely controlled killing machines (drones, mini-tanks,…) which can be equipped with some AI. And of course, factories which make them can be (if they are not already) 100% automatized.
While I do agree that UBI will eventually be implemented, an economy can't sustain itself with ~99% unemployment, the rich will quickly grow tired of the taxes required to sustain such a monstrous system, as we have seen historically that the rich will kick and scream every time they stand to lose money.
Capitalist will eventually invent itself out of existence.
True, the difference (which 90% of people that bring up this comparison fail to understand), is that the industrial revolution actually brought new jobs if not entire industries about.
Hell, I wish I could remember where I read it but apparently even the "information revolution" hasn't created a fraction of the jobs (in proportion to the population) that the industrial revolution brought about.
I wish automation was used to benefit of all mankind
makes me so angry we have this technology and it's just used to make Porky more money
How exactly do you intend on making Porky stop using machines?
I don't need to do anything, Porky just won't make any machines.
Porky's not as smart as you think in many cases.
Then why has he taken over the whole world?
If Porky knows that development of something will stop him, he won't do it and will stop all others from doing it, for it will be a fight for his life.
falling rate of profit makes UBI in the face of automation completely untenable
Some of them will try to prevent it, but the few that implement it will get ahead, forcing smarter porkies to also implement automation to compete.
They'll make themselves outdated, that isn't a smart move.
Automation scares the shit out of me. The power of a strike to paralyze industry is the only power the working class has, other than that of armed resistance. Automation is taking away the only nonviolent leverage we have. The mass unemployment that will follow damn well better start a revolution, because it will be the last chance we ever have.
During the first industrial revolution the introduction of inventions like the power loom put a lot of people out of work and caused wages to decline and dramatically lowered standard living standards. People didn't sit idle and you had luddites and the early socialist movement emerge as a response. The conservatives implemented factory legislation and some basic laws to bribe off the movement and shut it down.
As "automation" starts becoming more deployed in different ways you'll first have a construction boom looking like things are doing really good before the full ramifications start to really materialize. Also as the proportion of money invested in physical fixed-capital grows in ratio to labour so will the expenses relating to depreciation and the growth of obsolescence write-offs against gross profits; the business cycle should probably shorten more and you'll get more centralization emerge. Something like UBI might emerge to stop any form of rebellion from getting out of control if collectively capitalists are rational and see it's in their interests.
prisoners dilemma
if person A automates and person B doesn't, person A gains market share and profit
If they both Automate (aka every capitalist producing a particular good), the overall return on investment (profit-rate) goes down as well as employment
this
the fact that it's unwise for them collectively is irrelevent, capitalists act individually - if they didn't, they wouldn't be capitalists. one capitalist can't just say "hey this will screw us over, I'M not going to do it" because all the other capitalists will just take advantage of it anyway. the only way for this not to be the case is with state intervention prohibiting all businesses from doing it.