Comment by 999900000999

4 years ago

But there's an economic drain if you fire all the rock breakers, and they end up on the streets.

With automation coming for most jobs, we can either live in a low to no work Utopia or a hypercapitalist hell. Given recent trends, my money is on hypercapitalist hell.

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nradov  4 years ago

People keep claiming that automation is coming for most jobs, and yet we still don't have reliable, affordable robots that can do basic tasks like cooking a decent hamburger or stocking store shelves or snaking a plugged toilet. This belief in major automation advances is more like a religion than something grounded in hard science. Sure automation will gradually increase over time but it's going to be a long, slow grind.

  • 8note  4 years ago

    A huge amount of automation goes into cooking a decent hamburger, stocking store shelves, and snaking a toilet, mind you.

    I'm not sure id consider those basic, either. A toddler couldn't do any of them

foxfluff  4 years ago

This fits Graeber's thesis; "The book [..] makes the case that the ruling class stands to lose from the proletariat having extra free time on their hands"