However, it now appears that technology is capable of replacing people ... permanently.
What is happening now is not your grandpa's industrial revolution.
There is more and more talk of a UBI: Universal Basic Income that will be doled out to one and all so that no one needs to work in order to survive.
Those who choose to work (and can find a job to do) will be free to do so in order to make more money for a better lifestyle.
But an ever-increasing section of the population may be destined to become videogamers, vloggers, and vagabonds.
They said the exact same thing every time. Remember the Luddites?
There may be something different about this time around, but I’d need some very specific evidence as to why, because cosmetically it looks about the same magnitude as what came before, if not less actually.
In the British industrial revolution, automated shuttle looms were 40x more efficient than human weavers, but that didn’t cause unemployment.
Point to me an innovation today that’s 40x as efficient as a person. I can’t think of anything, even computers haven’t increased productivity that much.
That’s why I think this is no different.
Also, UBI is just communism wrapped up in a package that libertarians & some conservatives find digestible.
They’re experimenting with it in 3 municipalities in Ontario, and it’s a total disaster.