Comment by palmotea
2 months ago
> This isn’t true. The biggest companies are all rich because they cater to the massive US middle class..
It is true, but I can see why you'd be confused. Let me ask you this: if members of the "the massive US middle class" can be replaced with automation, are those companies going 1) to keep paying those workers to support the middle-class demand which made them rich, or are they going to 2) fire them so more money can be shoveled up to the shareholders?
The answer is obviously #2, which has been proven time and again (e.g. how we came to have "the Rust Belt").
> That’s where the big money is at
Now, but not necessarily in the future. I think AI (if it doesn't hit a wall) will change that, maybe not instantaneously, but over time.
It’s true, but I can see why you’d be confused. You conflated what the economy rewards (which is what caters to the large middle class pool of money) with what individual companies try to optimize for (eliminating labor costs).
So you end up with a huge starved mob trying to come all over your mansions and islands. I somehow think Musk totally capable of nuking those mobs, or unleash the (future) AI dogs over them, because the mob cannot produce anymore (because of AI) and cannot pay anymore (because no jobs because of AI). So the mob will be totally worthless to this style of "capitalism". Really why would they bother with UBI when they can let the mob just die out?
> Really why would they bother with UBI when they can let the mob just die out?
Personally, I think UBI is a ploy to keep the "huge starved mob[s]" pacified during the transition, when they still have enough power to act, before the tech oligarchs fully cement their control.
Once the common people are powerless to protect themselves and their interests, then they'll be left to die out.