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marketlurker t1_j6u4vrp wrote

Reply to comment by Taliesin_Chris in The steam engine changed the world. Artificial intelligence could destroy it. - The Boston Globe by GlobeOpinion

So what do the people who do get displaced do? How do they make a living? This really scares the hell out of me for not just now but in the next 40 years. There is no hand guiding the ship (nor has there really ever been). The only constant so far has been greed and profits. Taking care of people has never been a priority.

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Taliesin_Chris t1_j6u61ju wrote

My, probably naive, hope is that when everyone knows 'someone' who's been displaced the reality will set in. Probably around 25% unemployment. Your job can't be your worth. People's living can't be tied to jobs. We do that because society needed jobs at one point in our history... that's changing. Now, it really doesn't need them as much as it did. We keep them because we're scared to change that mentality, but really... if the stuff doesn't need to get done by a person, why are we taking a person's time to do it?

The jobs that need to be done by people will still find people to do them. Probably more on a gig economy for that, but yeah... it won't look like it looks today. It can't. People who think jobs are defining in a person's life will have to adapt. Until then, some people are going to hurt. It will get better, but initially, no... it won't.

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marketlurker t1_j6u91of wrote

I agree your job shouldn't define you, but it does provide the means to keep body and soul together, that is, money. Right now, the big motivator for companies is revenue and profits. If they can get the profits with less cost, they are going to do that. The consequences of their choices are going to suck.

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Taliesin_Chris t1_j6ub69i wrote

No... money provides the exchange for things to keep your body and soul together, and we 'often' get money from jobs. But not just from jobs. Some people inherit the money, some people use the money to make money, some people own something worth charging for. Jobs are only one way of doing it. We get hung up on that reality because for most of us it is a job that does it, but we can find other ways to do it.

Maybe working at a company earns you shares, and you make money when that company makes money. Then when you've done enough, you let that do it for you.

That's just one idea. We'll hammer it out. Not immediately as people need to realize this isn't a joke, it isn't going away, and we can't just make people work jobs that don't need to exist because that does not actually create a fulfilling life. It does the opposite.

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