Comment by hgs3
4 days ago
What an asinine comment. Do you think I, as a software engineer, am sitting around twirling my mustache, cackling as I plot to destroy livelihoods? I'm trying to make a living like anybody else. I've had my own opportunities lost to outsourcing and H-1B's since day 1.
The economist John Keynes predicted almost 100 years ago that technological advances would lead to a 15 hour workweek. If AI now makes you 5x as productive, then why aren't you working 1 day a week for the same pay? Why didn't Keynes' vision come true.
You may not have sat around twirling your moustache but you have actively been involved in an industry where the goal is to automate stuff that people would previously do manually. That is the entire point. Which, if you believe the message on many threads/posts here, puts people out of jobs.
I don't believe it is that black and white. Yes, automation eliminates some jobs, but overall moves everyone (on average) further up the productivity line, which improves lives, again, on average.
That is why we live like kings now compared to people of the past.
But circling back to the point, if AI does the same thing, eliminates expensive manual coding and other similar work, that is essentially the same thing we've been doing to other people for decades.
It is not for the same pay. Real wage increased dramatically during that time period. And despite all obsoleted jobs, society is still more or less at full employment.
A living like anybody else or a living at the expense of everybody else?
Before calling that comment asinine, did you consider that the commenter might be reflecting @flowerlad's comment back to him/her to prove a point ?
> Why didn't Keynes' vision come true.
governments implemented (and still implement) keynesian economics, and it has turned out to be a very bad idea and he was very very wrong.