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mihaicl1981 t1_j60uf14 wrote

Reply to comment by rthomas10 in How life with UBI could look like by Financial_Donut_64

I agree , personally. But I am trying to upgrade to a Tesla( true story , already started the paperwork for leasing)

Say .. normally I get a UBI of 1000 USD /month.

I can't possibly get a new car lease for a 60k car.

They will just take it from my UBI ? Ok , then I need more money for my mansion (can't live in a studio bro) and more for my MacBook.

Of course I could just keep my old Leaf and just accept I can't afford it. But how does it feel to be the one with the old car and small house? You will get to appreciate stoicism fast ..

So sadly capitalism is the only way out .. that or learning hedonic adaptation ..

Wish there was a way for all of us to get our mansions and expensive cars and laptops/phones but somehow this has to be spread.

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Financial_Donut_64 OP t1_j60vx7e wrote

Question that we're kind of left with is, if AGI is so powerful that it can replace almost all human workers - wouldn't it do so for a fraction of the cost? Obv. then the incentive for companies would be to just make more profit, but maybe it also leads to a scenario where consumer goods like cars (and even teslas) also reduce by a substantial amount in cost.

How much of the price of a consumer good is determined by the number of employees working to produce that consumer good?

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grahag t1_j61ni99 wrote

> How much of the price of a consumer good is determined by the number of employees working to produce that consumer good?

While that cost is factored into the cost of a product, the profit margin can be arbitrarily decided.

In a healthy economy, supply and demand is key, but we're in a new age of artificial scarcity where key manufacturers can restrict the flow of a product to boost prices and deny products to the multitudes. Housing, healthcare, fuel, electronics, virtual goods, etc are good examples.

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