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Comment by therobots927

6 days ago

It is scary. You know what’s also scary? Being told a robot is going to take your job and healthcare away.

There’s a lot of scary shit going on.

41 comments

therobots927

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happytoexplain  6 days ago

Also scary: Seeing a comment this ostensibly un-controversial in grey.

  • tptacek  6 days ago

    There's nothing "un-controversial" about trying to mitigate a firebombing attack with a broad critique of capitalism. It's an edgy take, just own it.

pixel_popping  6 days ago

I agree it is scary, but why would a robot take healthcare away? Wouldn't that be the contrary?

  • WBrentWilliams  6 days ago

    The quickest way to rile up an existing mob is to make them fear their livelihood is being reduced or removed. The _robot_ is not taking away healthcare, but the effect of the robot existing hit directly at the livelihood of the masses.

    In the US, health insurance is largely tied to employment. Health insurance, in a personal economic sense, reduces to being able to pay for healthcare. This policy is largely a left-over of World War II era employment policies. No one is taking healthcare _away_ from anyone (strictly speaking), but the ability to be able to _pay_ for healthcare is reduced to zero when employment ceases. Accessing the safety net is a separate skillset. This skill set becomes more difficult to achieve because the political class does not want to provide healthcare for everyone, only the worthy (their loyal voters).

    I grew up in and am still a member of the precariat. I am educated and doing well, but I wear a well-polished pair of golden handcuffs due to how my ability to afford healthcare for myself, and my family, is tied to employment. Politically, I _do not_ like being tied to my employer by such a chain, but my arguments to change the system have been met with quite firm push-back.

    • stvltvs  6 days ago

      Insurance companies are using AI (whatever that means in this case) to make coverage denial decisions. That can be reasonably summarized as robots are taking away our healthcare.

      6 replies →

  • whimblepop  6 days ago

    Because healthcare in the US is tied to employment. For most people here, losing a job means losing access to healthcare (partially or totally).

  • sophacles  6 days ago

    Well in the US you get healthcare from a job (either directly in the form of insurance or indirectly in the form the money to pay for healthcare). If the robot takes your job, it takes your healthcare too.

    You know this, stop pretending otherwise.

    • petre  6 days ago

      Robots can take away healthcare also by algorithm (or AI) denying healthcare benefits, while still being employed. It doesn't need to be a robot in cogs and hydraulics, but rather just a computer program. Probably already happening.

  • cryptonym  6 days ago

    Because the robot would take their job and having a job is a precondition to healthcare (may vary by country)?

    • anematode  6 days ago

      As far as I know, the US is the only country like this. But anti-AI sentiment is rising around the world.

  • therobots927  6 days ago

    1. Americans need a job to get healthcare

    2. Robots take away jobs from Americans and the proceeds to go the owner (investor) class

    3. Americans no longer have healthcare

    Understand?

    • pixel_popping  6 days ago

      I understand (I'm not from the US), however, wouldn't healthcare in the US would get drastically cheaper (even eventually free?) if hospitals/clinics were composed of humanoids instead of humans?

      8 replies →