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Turtley13 t1_ivm7hif wrote

Reply to comment by 685327592 in More people are employed in clean energy than in fossil fuels by kickresume

But isn't the whole point of capitalism to create jobs!?

/s

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685327592 t1_ivm8r2q wrote

You want productivity to be high. If more jobs are needed to produce less energy that doesn't bode well.

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meme_slave_ t1_ivmhi5s wrote

Thats not how that works, even with all the upfront cost added (that includes employee salary) solar energy still costs the same per kilowatt as coal.

Thats not even including the literal millions of lives that could be saved by switching.

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chuckmckinnon t1_ivmkrtj wrote

I see the sarcasm, but it's worth an answer anyway: no. If you're primarily concerned with job creation then the last thing you want are "labour-saving devices." You want people doing everything manually -- think of digging ditches with spoons instead of backhoes.

For people to prosper -- for the standard of living to go up -- you need more productivity, or more stuff produced per unit of input. Increased productivity means that last decade's innovative thing gets better understood and the process of making it more reproducible, and now making that thing becomes a well-understood process needing fewer people.

Now people need to find new jobs, but that also means that we're producing more things with less effort than when we started. We aren't able to disconnect "innovation" from "creative destruction." Whole companies get created, flourish, and die because of this lifecycle.

Understanding this made me a lot less resentful about my career, and helped me to better anticipate my next moves.

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_newsalt_ t1_ivmw7i6 wrote

This is a great answer.

Capitalism is all about adding value. More output for less input increases wealth for everyone.

Imagine if grain still had to be harvested by hand. Each person harvesting would only be able to do say 1 acre per day. Then have to thresh by hand after. Which you cold maybe do 5 acres a day with a horse and then haul to a bin.

So 12 hours cut plus 3 hours thresh plus 1 hour transport per acre

A modern custom operation charges about $25 per acre for harvesting service.

So if done by hand the labour would only be worth $1.6 per hour.

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ArvinaDystopia t1_ivoeyja wrote

> Understanding this made me a lot less resentful about my career

Same. I'm not automating jobs away, I'm improving productivity. It's the fault of politicians and businessmen that that excess productivity is not put to improving working conditions.
The solution to growing inequality is to regulate profits/tax them rather than oppose technological improvements.

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