Quote from: giantdragon on November 02, 2013, 03:26:41 PM

Quote from: Zangelbert Bingledack on November 02, 2013, 11:45:51 AM

Eventually automation will make it so that working 1 hour a week at a really easy job will be enough to live well. And this is supposed to be a bad thing?

Quote from: Zangelbert Bingledack on November 02, 2013, 11:56:18 AM

If you had a bunch of machines that did EVERYTHING for you, including maintaining the machines, you wouldn't have a job, but you'd be living like a king, or a god. Not having to work is an unmitigated blessing, not a curse.

Both things you have described are undoubtedly good for the humanity! But as I wrote earlier, in current economical system all benefits from the automation will go to capital owners (most of them are simply greedy banksters who even don't know what their business are doing, they just hire CEO to rule the corporation and demand profit-profit-profit from him) - so why they voluntary will decide to reduce your working day to 1 hour or give away fully-automated factory which can let you live "like a king, or a god"!?

P.S. With this thread I wanted to show the coming conflict labor-vs-capital caused by automation and discuss possible solutions, not to oppose the progress.

You're talking about crony capitalism, corporatism, fascism...nothing to do with free markets at all. The problem isn't capitalists, it's the power of the state up for grabs for capitalists to glom onto in order to beat away their competitors. In a world with little or no state power, entrepreneurs are not so scary Grin