Posted on 11/26/2002 6:27:01 PM PST by Momaw Nadon
Very good question.
I would have to first work to be able to afford the robot(s) that would then work for me.
Then I would be all set.
There is Marx who wished to create an egalitarian society so that all would be provided for. The only problem is that an elite group of rulers are required to assign who receives what benefits.
There is "Utopia" by Sir Thomas More, but that requires a benevolant King to make the same decisions as above.
There is the ideal society envisoned by Plato, but it requires supreme authority be vested in a few of the intellectually superior citizens to decide how to dispense the profits of a wealthy society.
Judge: For the crime of gross embezzlement I sentence you Peter Gibbons to a term of no less than 4 years in federal pound me in the a** prison, you've led a trite and meaningless life, you're a very bad person.
But after you have worked, say, 1 year to afford a toilet cleaning robot you will need a robot to mow your yard?
Now go work another year....
After that you must have a robot who can earn money for you to buy your food and pay for your VR goggles...
How long will that take? Perhaps you can clean someone elses toilet (who cannot yet afford a robot) until you have enough money to pay for your own toliet cleaning robots?
In the kind of society we are discussing, human work is optional.
If you want to work, be my guest and go right ahead and work if that's what makes you happy.
I don't know.
The aim is to have enough robots to generate wealth for me and allow me to live a life of leisure.
Frankly, I think you may have a liberal mindset on the matter. Work is good, not evil. God created us to work ("Dress the Garden and keep it...") For the wise man, work is play.
If you don't like your work, find something you do like or make your own job by starting your own business (if you have the self-discipline and the guts). However, we do not always enjoy every aspect of work, nor should we expect to. However, we can enjoy the satisfaction which comes from a job done well and responsibly, even if we do not enjoy a particular job itself.
So, give up your false notions about work and get a life (and a job!).
I think, to be halfway serious for a moment, that what will change is the nature of what we think of as "work," just as it has already changed. The percentage of a hunter-gatherer's day spent acquiring food was huge. The percentage of the average American salaried worker's day spent in the same pursuit is minimal by comparison. The bulk of his efforts these days go toward (1) shelter, ever fancier and more luxurious, and (2) the big one - amusement. Entertainment. It is no accident that athletes and actors are paid what they are paid, it's what the market will bear because the market is there. Good grief, people will work days on end to purchase boxes that put little lights on a phosphor or LED screen to simulate what people used to have to do to stay alive.
But I don't see most of us, the better part anyway, turning inward like that. The people who earn more money than they or their descendants can ever spend, continue to work, all of them. (Their descendants do not. Bummer for them.) We have a lot of work ahead of us as a species, and a very large universe to try to explore. And even those of us who stay kept, will be doing just what our own predecessors needed to do to survive, for fun.
So technology won't really do a lot for us except to change the nature of our work. Well, the orgasmatronic nuclear-powered penile implant, maybe, but that's it!
Our defense budget is app. $350B now (being generous).
Our government budget is $1.2B per year.
We could take the $850B difference and allocate it to each person in the US now. That would be $32k per person per year for 265 million people including children.
So for a family of 5 that would be $160,000 per year.
Now then, WHY do we not do that today?
Using your imagination, can you envision any way of being able to live wealthily without having to work?
I think the screenwriter screwed up by introducing the computer account theft angle. It was hilarious to see Peter rise higher in the company the less work he did - they should have just continued that theme until he became CEO.
Already devised. It's called 'welfare.'
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.