Quote from: Hell-raiser on May 15, 2018, 08:23:35 AM

Quote from: jaysabi on May 14, 2018, 05:19:10 PM

Quote from: Hell-raiser on May 09, 2018, 09:28:05 PM

Regarding automation destroying jobs, you should not forget that jobless people won't be able to buy the goods produced by the automated plants, so there should necessarily be a balance between automation and employment. Automation without demand is meaningless (it would only cause overproduction), but demand is not possible without employment.

While true in very general and over-simplified terms, this doesn't pan out much in the real world. The US used to be the manufacturing hub of the world, but when those jobs started getting lost to automation and outsourcing, the US didn't suddenly become a country of poor, unemployed workers.

Good turn, I love it. Now you added outsourcing to automation as you likely think it would make your point more valid. Automation doesn't come about in a year, it is in fact a gradual process which literally takes decades to develop, with a lot of people involved in the process in the meanwhile. Truth be told, it never stopped for the last 200 years, in the very least.

Quote from: jaysabi on May 14, 2018, 05:19:10 PM

Also, production comes from demand, not the other way around. You can produce anything, but if there's no demand for the product or services created, the venture will soon fail. When people demand a good or service, you can afford to employ people to provide it, or create it through automation. There is little risk of overproducing anything because the market naturally adjusts price, so it's a problem that solves itself.

Oh, here you go again on your favorite path of twisting your point. Indeed, production comes from demand by people who are still employed. But when the productive capacities (which are being automated) come on stream and become operational, people get fired, and all of a sudden there is no more demand. Then yet more people become jobless (as you claim yourself, just in case) and so on. It seems like you have to make up your mind at this point, whether the market "naturally adjusts" and "the problem solves itself" or it is a route to complete destruction of the economy.

You must be quite insecure in your points if you have to wind up your own posts with so much bluster before getting to anything that resembles an intelligent counter point, although with the amount of shitposting that goes on in your typical response, calling it "intelligent" is being generous.

As an example, you posted about how automation was going to create jobless people who will no longer be contributing to demand for the products created by those automated jobs, and when I pointed out the superficiality of that sentiment and countered with the fact that this hasn't proven out in practice, you tried to cover up for the fact that you had no response by accusing me of changing the point somewhat by adding in outsourcing. In case you didn't notice, and you clearly didn't, whether the job is lost to outsourcing or automation, the lost job is lost and it doesn't change the fact that the US was the manufacturing hub of the world and now it isn't, and we're not a destitute country like you would have to believe if buying into your premise. Your second paragraph evidently assumes that once you lose your job, you drop out of the demand pool forever. I won't bother responding to that and give you the benefit of the doubt that you don't actually believe that.