I have to admit while I think this knowledge work automation push is all going to be a complete disaster for my own life, I do love that we're finally seeing the educated, "my job is more impressive than yours" class get knocked down a peg or two.
I come from a working class background and for years (decades I guess) my family (especially my dad) has been competing with mass low-skilled immigration, outsourcing, and automation. This has taken a huge toll on his mental health as from time to time he's struggled to keep afloat.
But did he get any sympathy from the educated knowledge class? Of course not...
Reskill! They say. We shouldn't protect inefficient jobs which can be done by machine / foreign sweatshop workers abroad.
Don't be a racist! They say. If you can't compete with the salary demands of hundreds of thousands of low-skilled migrants that's your problem!
Instead of embracing this we could of course have looked for ways to protect jobs or looked for ways to reeducated and compensate those impacted. But we didn't because that would have been bad for GDP. So we were horrid to those who were struggling and desperate for help.
Now we deserve the same. We work inefficient jobs which can be done faster and cheaper by computers running auto-correct. Yes, knowledge workers will lose their jobs, but remember the productivity boosts are going to be great! And that's all that matters right? Businesses won't need to hire armies of devs to build an app anymore like you don't need to pay someone in the US a decent salary to make your clothes or your car.
My advice – shut up, reskill and embrace it. Don't think you're special and deserve UBI. If you can't compete with auto-correcting machines thats your problem. Remember – unless you want higher prices we must embrace outsourcing, mass immigration, automation and AI. When you're struggling to feed your kids, remember this is good.
</rant>
Genuinely though, hope you guys are all doing okay, both today and tomorrow. And while not preferable, in this case the karma is at least deserved.
There's a lot here I feel I can respond to, and I can't help but agree with the sentiment; I've been saying something like that to people here for years and was dismissed. That said, I think most of the push to drive down labor standards is really coming more from the owner/capitalist class than anyone else. Obviously, they've got the most incentive to do so. What will vex me unendingly is that so many in labor vote against their material interests for reasons that are likely cultural.
Glad to hear you resonated with what I said. After I wrote it I thought I probably got a bit too heated...
On your point about the the owner/capitalist class, I think that should be assumed honestly. The thing that's broken in recent years is that the politicians decided that the old model of paying a lot for quality products that lasted and were produced domestically was a bad model when you can import cheap crap by exploiting foreign workers.
This idea that cost increases are bad because if the iPhone was built in the US by low-skilled labors we'd have to pay them a decent wage is hard for me to understand. We should want to pay more given the knowledge that we're supporting the employment of our neighbours and friends. Sure, GDP and productivity might not be as high, but it's not like they were so poor in the 1950s that people couldn't afford a good quality of life. In fact, in many senses the quality of life the average person enjoyed before this was far higher.
We seem to have traded a more equally prosperous society for one which is equally prosperous, but deeply unequal. And for whose benefit? Knowledge workers and CEOs. (In my opinion anyway)
I come from a working class background and for years (decades I guess) my family (especially my dad) has been competing with mass low-skilled immigration, outsourcing, and automation. This has taken a huge toll on his mental health as from time to time he's struggled to keep afloat.
But did he get any sympathy from the educated knowledge class? Of course not...
Reskill! They say. We shouldn't protect inefficient jobs which can be done by machine / foreign sweatshop workers abroad.
Don't be a racist! They say. If you can't compete with the salary demands of hundreds of thousands of low-skilled migrants that's your problem!
Instead of embracing this we could of course have looked for ways to protect jobs or looked for ways to reeducated and compensate those impacted. But we didn't because that would have been bad for GDP. So we were horrid to those who were struggling and desperate for help.
Now we deserve the same. We work inefficient jobs which can be done faster and cheaper by computers running auto-correct. Yes, knowledge workers will lose their jobs, but remember the productivity boosts are going to be great! And that's all that matters right? Businesses won't need to hire armies of devs to build an app anymore like you don't need to pay someone in the US a decent salary to make your clothes or your car.
My advice – shut up, reskill and embrace it. Don't think you're special and deserve UBI. If you can't compete with auto-correcting machines thats your problem. Remember – unless you want higher prices we must embrace outsourcing, mass immigration, automation and AI. When you're struggling to feed your kids, remember this is good.
</rant>
Genuinely though, hope you guys are all doing okay, both today and tomorrow. And while not preferable, in this case the karma is at least deserved.