Posted on 08/04/2017 1:26:21 PM PDT by aquila48
I made a small note in a previous article about how we shouldn’t worry about technology that displaces human workers:
The lamenters don’t seem to understand that increased productivity in one industry frees up resources and laborers for other industries, and, since increased productivity means increased real wages, demand for goods and services will increase as well. They seem to have a nonsensical apocalyptic view of a fully automated future with piles and piles of valuable goods everywhere, but nobody can enjoy them because nobody has a job. I invite the worriers to check out simple supply and demand analysis and Say’s Law. Say’s Law of markets is a particularly potent antidote to worries about automation, displaced workers, and the so-called “economic singularity.” Jean-Baptiste Say explained how over-production is never a problem for a market economy. This is because all acts of production result in the producer having an increased ability to purchase other goods. In other words, supplying goods on the market allows you to demand goods on the market.
Say’s Law, Rightly Understood
J.B. Say’s Law is often inappropriately summarized as “supply creates its own demand,” a product of Keynes having “badly vulgarized and distorted the law.”
Professor Bylund has recently set the record straight regarding the various summaries and interpretations of Say’s Law.
Bylund lists the proper definitions:
Say’s Law:
Production precedes consumption.
Demand is constituted by supply.
One’s demand for products in the market is limited by one’s supply.
Production is undertaken to facilitate consumption.
Your supply to satisfy the wants of others makes up your demand for for others’ production.
There can be no general over-production (glut) in the market.
NOT Say’s Law:
Production creates its own demand.
Aggregate supply is (always) equal to aggregate demand. The economy is always at full employment.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...
I totally agree. Time was when 90% of Americans worked on a farm and I believe that is under 5% now and we are all richer and fatter than ever.
“I totally agree. Time was when 90% of Americans worked on a farm and I believe that is under 5% now and we are all richer and fatter than ever.”
And employed!
So employed that millions of illegals flood across the borders and have no trouble finding work. And think of the technology revolution that has been going on over the past couple of decades, yet unemployment is down to 4.4%.
I mentioned in post #17 the reason for this concocted alarmism.
A good example is cell phones. Do to automated cheap production half the world population now has one. That greatly improves productivity. Not to mention literacy.
I’m looking to go back to night school for a few classes in industrial robotics.
A big problem is that farmers need seasonal, short-term labor and with a robot you can park it for 10 months and it will not complain. Also, imagine a service using uber technology to share/allocate automated agricultural robots during the harvest seasons; robots could work 6 months during the US summer and then off to Argentina/Chili for their summer. Even within the US micro-climates and latitude would mean that agracultural robots would start harvesting in the south and work their way north.
Besides, I am sure that if an agricultural robot was idled for whatever reason an entrepenuering farmer could always slap a wig on it and there would be quite a few maladapted manga-reading perverts that would pay money to molest it.
If Mises Institute says it, that’s reason enough to fear that the opposite may be true.
With all the free time people will have being unemployed and not having much money to spend, they will become do it your selfers and perform most of the work done by “trades” men themselves. Hell, most “trades” can be figured out with few hours time and a you tube video now a days.
I haven’t hired a tradesman in 20 plus years. I can do most of the work myself. Plumbing, heating/air conditioning, electrical, drywall, flooring, tile, roofing, new windows .... its not rocket surgery!
It’s amazing what you can do with a little free time, the right resources, a fearless attitude and a little sweat equity.
The Democrat Party answer to that would be... Soylent Green!
Det. Thorn: Ocean's dying, plankton's dying... it's people. *Soylent Green is made out of people.* They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!
Movie: Soylent Green (1973)
“Automation and A.I. will decimate the middle class and create a large welfare class.”
BS! Who will be buying these wonderful products and services that these robots are creating if nobody has jobs and thus can’t afford to buy them? This is really pathetic logic.
You also forget that humans have insatiable needs. As old needs are satisfied new needs arise.
What I predict as the next growth industry that will arise from increased automation is the “pamper industry” and I don’t mean diapers. I mean that people will look for services and products that will pamper them, and as machines proliferate the human touch will be more on demand. Look at all the nail places, salons, massages, cruises, travel, restaurants, amusement and entertainment that were non existing a few decades ago.
Don’t be bamboozled by scaremongering leftist propaganda. The reason for the big push for this is, as I said in post #17, GUARANTEED INCOME.
Exactly
The computer thing is way overblown
For god sakes now we have sex dolls costing more that the real thing
In short. Screw tv and looking at screens
I like radio. A lot
Here’s to REAL jobs and REAL work
A honest day for an honest days pay
Robots schmobots
Would you care to elaborate and defend your statement with logic?
My statement rests upon long experience with the website and the nutcases it publishes.
As technology becomes more advance, less and less people are needed.
Automation and A.I. will decimate the middle class and create a large welfare class.
CEO of Sun Microsystems
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
Nope. Not less people but less work is needed. People will acquire their major wealth sooner.
The welfare class is still a creation of the State, which focuses wealth into fewer hands.
A robot will sweep the streets with 1/3 the effort. But everyday people can also own that robot, not just rich oligarchs who get their monopoly from the State. But your robot will allow you to retire in half the time.
CEOs are know nothings. The little people just get intimidated. I laugh at their science prognostications. CEOs are so incredibly stupid. They just have valuable ties to the State.
Once upon s time I would hire electricians to pull network and phone cables. Wireless has made that work redundant.
Rubbish....
No YOU have been bamboozled hook, line and sinker.
What companies are not trying to save money through automation and A.I.?
It’s A LOT cheaper with Automation and A.I. that does not require companies to pay out, health benefits or vacation. Moreover, A.I. can work more than 40 hours a week.
People will initially service the machines, but you don’t need that many people compared to the number of people that were in a job field before. Furthermore, you will not need as many people in time servicing the machines as technology gets better. In other words Robots will service Robots, A.I., etc...
What industry needs will NOT be affected by technology?
You are trying to make an argument that was lost a long time ago. Good luck selling your lemon.
“I think it’d be a while before one shows up at your door in a driver-less car to do housecleaning or repairs.”
We have the technology to do that... but the liability of putting a robot, big enough and strong enough to accidently kill or injure, into a home environment... well lets just say it will be a while. There is a reason why robot vacuums are not built large enough to suck up the cat.
Then again we all have ‘robot’s that wash dishes and clean clothes. They just don’t look humanoid or move around.
LOL - I was a computer scientist for 33 years. Programmed everything mundane databases to satellites. Took AI classes in grade scholl.
My father was a Depression era, greatest generation renaissance man with an eighth grade education. Retired Army Colonel! There is nothing he wouldn’t try.
He taught me everything I know. He refused to pay anyone to fix something unless he tried to fix it first and failed. Even if it cost more he would say, “I learned something and watched the guy. Next time, I’ll get it right. (LOL)
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How?
Give me specific examples.
Let’s go to your example.
People sweeping the streets today still work for a company.
So companies in the future will replace people with robots, and the people sweeping the streets will be gone.
Thus, the same company will be doing the same job, but with robots. The only thing missing in the equation is people.
Oh you seem to think the companies all the former employees will all of sudden be able to afford street sweeping robots after they get fired and have no income?
There's still a market, apparently.
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