Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

[David Horn]

(08-16-2017, 09:26 AM)Kinser79 Wrote:

(08-15-2017, 09:36 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(08-14-2017, 06:15 PM)Kinser79 Wrote:

(08-14-2017, 05:34 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: If globalization and automation are tools of bondage, then maybe we would be wise to refuse to buy our own chains.

Globalization is bondage, but automation is not.  Every time humans have automated a job it has resulted in more goods, for less cost to more potential purchasers.  Unless of course your idea of a fun time is staring at the ass end of a mule for months out of they year.

Adding my $0.02: Automation has a terminal phase, where all work is automated.  We're a long way from that, but we had better start thinking about what this means, and start that thinking now!  The automatons are owned by capitalists, mostly through corporations.  What they produce, whether goods or services, have to be obtained by others with money (at least today).  If work is nonexistent, then the buyers will be few and far between.  

Essentially, this is a world of owners.  What about the rest of us?

That terminal phase would be a post scarcity society.  One for which I don't think we have the means to contemplate, much like the Roman Pope in the IXth century didn't have the means to contemplate our world today or even that of a century ago.

Engels wrote about capitalism eventually bringing about is own destruction, but Marxian economics is flawed from the outset.

That being said, let us suppose that full automation were possible and no other better economic system than capitalism could be devised.  Then capitalism must collapse. However, I do not think that such a terminal phase is even reachable.

If we use an industrial revolution example.  We start with a village blacksmith who can make 100 nails a day.  But then some capitalist comes along and builds a factory that makes 1000 nails a day.  What happens?  Sure the blacksmith might lose his job (or more likely he might get one in the factory) but the most important thing that happens is the price of nails drops.  This has ripple effects throughout the economy.

Because nails are cheaper nailing things is cheaper, which means tables and cabinets and houses become cheaper, which means that the people who would buy those anyway now have extra money to spend on something else, like a hair cut or a new suit.

I strongly recommend watching the video in my previous post.

I agree that this is the arc of economic history so far, but the arc seems to be reaching a point where the creation of jobs is lagging the rate of change in the economies of advanced countries.  We need to start this discussion now, but the current winners don't see any advantage to them in modifying the model.  nonetheless, the change will come one way or another.  It's better for it to be incremental and peaceful than revolutionary and violent.