Submitted by Newhereeeeee t3_122bckb in Futurology
Advanced-Payment-358 t1_jdpue3z wrote
Through competition, product prices can be reduced as cost of making them plummets due to removal of paid human labor, which may have a huge factor on costs of products and and usually consists 50-90% of cost of services in developed countries, so the net purchasing power parity of a society does not degrade in the longer term.
As low wage factory workers may not be as expensive, white collar, expert and administrative workers and consult services may cost company a major share of it's expenditures, and cutting these off will allow a major leap in productivity and price competition. Most of the time, the worker that gets paid way too much only for repeating stuff they have read from books themselves, so AI can be well capable of offering similar expertise, with the improvement of removing the human error.
r2k-in-the-vortex t1_jdq58j7 wrote
The cost of labour is 100% of the cost for every good and service. It's just a question of how far down the supply line you count. Ultimately, human labour is the only thing that costs anything because humans are the only ones demanding money for their time and effort.
You can even go as far as to say that money is nothing more than I.O.U for human labour. You need money because you need products of other people's labours and you get money because other people have a need for your labour.
But machines can reduce how much labour is needed to make things. And that's a fantastic thing for the entire society, because we all get to have more without having to work so much for it.
Carbon140 t1_jdqac5m wrote
That isn't correct under capitalism. Under capitalism someone can own land/resources and contribute zero Labor and still take profits from it. On a simple scale Imagine a farm or property owner who employs a manager to manage the entire property and just sits on his butt all day.
Under capitalism its very clear no matter how efficient production gets ownership of resources/land will make sure we don't live in some post scarcity utopia.
Surur t1_jdqben3 wrote
Well, except that labour makes new resources accessible. Such as installing solar panels or mining astroids.
Whole-Impression-709 t1_jdqdbtz wrote
This is why I'm excited about automation. The other person who posted is right about people not wanting to give up their influence, but I think the body politick will push back when the time comes.
Timbershoe t1_jdqem72 wrote
History is circular.
This has all happened before, and will happen again.
The Industrial Revolution wasn’t a political revolution, however it lead to better working conditions (weekends off, paid holidays, sick leave).
The AI revolution will just change the job market slightly. Perhaps allow for more flexible working, but those holding out for some political revolution are going to be slightly disappointed. There will still be jobs. There will still be workers.
whyzantium t1_jdqfg96 wrote
Weekends off etc were a reaction to the industrial revolution which mandated rigid work schedules, and only made possible through trade unions. Such things wouldn't make sense before the industrial revolution.
Timbershoe t1_jdqfwa6 wrote
That is literally what I said. The Industrial Revolution lead to better working conditions (weekends off, paid holidays, sick leave).
It was not a political revolution.
Alpha3031 t1_jdqiizn wrote
I believe what /u/whyzantium is saying is that preindustrial working patterns are sufficiently different to be incomparable (or at least difficult to compare) but arguably less onerous*, and the change you point to has a starting point that was post–industrial revolution, circa 19th century, and took a century of activism after that to achieve.
* See for example excerpt from Schor (1993).
whyzantium t1_jdqucwx wrote
You're missing out the fact that society wasn't organised around things that made your list of remedies necessary. Peasants worked less hours before the early modern period and didn't need any of that stuff. It's like saying the COVID outbreak was good because it lead to COVID vaccines.
Timbershoe t1_jdr1ryj wrote
Yes. Because my point wasn’t about the value of changes to working conditions, it was that working conditions changed as a result of automation.
There was no political upheaval. Systems of government didn’t change.
The OP was saying that AI would lead to a change politics. I’m sceptical it’ll even register.
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