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Clarkeprops t1_j07df3o wrote

Reply to comment by 0913856742 in The problem isn’t AI, it’s requiring us to work to live by jamesj

Absolutely. I need work for regulation, social connection and I care about my city. AI can never take away every avenue I have to contribute in that way. It might shorten my day a bit… oh no. The horror!

We will never run out of jobs, because our lives will never be too good. There will always be something else to do and some way to provide value. People will always want for something, and people will be there to provide it.

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0913856742 t1_j07fhdx wrote

Alright. And from your other post about your current priorities I can see why work has such an important place in your life.

However, you need to understand that this isn't the situation for everyone - that is, many people find their social connections, life structure, and sense of fulfillment outside of what they do for a living. In fact, Gallup has shown over the past two decades that about two thirds of people either felt not engaged or were actively disengaged (i.e. hating) their job. (There is more recent polling data but this is the first graphic I found, which only goes from 2000-2016, but I recall the numbers have remained steady since then)

This is understandable if we concede that most people most of the time only work because they are compelled to, or else they will starve.

I think what OPs article was arguing, and what many other people on this sub would argue, is that this free-market capitalistic system itself is problematic in the face of ever-changing technology that risks squeezing out the human component of labour. The ultimate concern being, how would we survive within this system if we have no labour to sell?

I suppose what I don't understand, is why you conceptualize someone's value as strictly what good or service they can provide someone else?

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