Quote (inkanddagger @ Oct 22 2019 08:34pm)
We haven't had a solid Yang Gang post in a while, so let's hop to it.
171 years ago, in 1848, Karl Marx accurately predicted our modern era of automation, artificial intelligence, and the solutions as prescribed by our beloved Democratic hopeful Andrew Yang.
Marx was no opponent of automation. In fact, he accurately describes it as a necessary stage in capitalist development on the road toward communism. He didn't care for folklore tales like John Henry; Marx was rooting for the steam drill.
Below are excerpts from 'The Fragment on Machines' which can be read in full here:
http://thenewobjectivity.com/pdf/marx.pdfThis is still a bit ahead of its time even today, as all workers haven't completely transitioned into mere "conscious linkages" assisting the AI run machines.
Marx extols the replacement of the worker in the capital system by machines.
Marx admits here that the labor theory of value ends when the automated future arrives.
And we see this happening all around us today. Hours and benefits are being cut wherever possible by those who currently control capital in order to maximize their accumulation of capital, but as demand drives economic production and demand relies wholly on labor being compensated for time, the economy is grinding to a halt at the bottom even as economic indicators at the top indicate extreme health. Eventually the entire system will end itself. Automation is an accelerant.
Marx does lay out a utopian view of how this all ends,
How we arrive there is a choice that our current generation will likely have to make. Either violent revolution and mass social upheaval will occur as the capital system grinds to a halt, or we embrace the end point as soon as possible and start paying out a Universal Basic Income that gradually increases until the machines have supplanted labor in its entirety.
My family stands by the immediate objectives of candidate Yang. Where does yours stand?
i'm late to the party. "i" believe automation has to be restricted in the workforce. i do not believe you can rely on government/corporations unless they are relying on you. a move to a fully automated workforce would strip any value our lives hold.
i wanted to talk about this in my upcoming policy thread. i'm still thinking it over and have some research to do on it but...
i think the only way to prevent this is, a combo of a tax relief to companies using people instead of automatons, and a VAT placed on using automated labor. there would have to be restrictions to both, but the idea is to make automation less profitable. (at least in certain sectors)
things may change as space travel and (hopefully) colonization of other planets become more relevant.
someone around here carries the quote around on sig, but it fits here.
Quote
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler—Albert Einstein