Phoenix5869

Phoenix5869 OP t1_je5uk40 wrote

“employees should have shares in the company”? Im sorry but this made me laugh. So every small business is just supposed to hand over shares, which could be bought by shareholders and benefit the business through the money paid for said shares, and just… hand them over for free? No small or even medium sized business could afford to hire workers if that was the case. And what happens when the employee(s) leave the company? What happens to the shares? What happens if the workers save up / get enough money from the shares to no longer require employment?

and if wages were higher, that would hurt small businesses, and the price of everything would just go up.

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Phoenix5869 OP t1_je5tes8 wrote

Before i answer, i just want to thank you for actually taking the time to try and present an argument. That’s more than i can say about the other responses.

>Why? Further, how? You just said 'no one is working', so who is going to be buying these products?

Because landlords, companies, the government etc are not just going to give away everything for free just because all jobs are automated. There will still be demand, for example, for MTG cards. Wizards / Hasbro is not just going to stop selling them just because no one is working. UBI is a common theme on this sub and others, and i agree that it will be nessecary once jobs start being automated, otherwise how else will people get money? If everyone recieves, lets say $1250 a month on average, landlords still have a mortgage to pay and aren’t just going to say “i guess you can stop paying rent now”. They are going to see that their tenants have the ability to pay and if anything increase rent prices If UBI results in the tenants having more disposable income.

>Do you feel that people will still be able to acquire new products without being paid for labor?

yes, because as i said earlier, UBI will have to be in place (to stop mass homelessness and starvation, if not the collapse of the economy).

>If 'bills need to be paid', fine, paid by whom?

by those that live in houses. Again, landlords aren’t going to allow tenants to live for free because there are no jobs.

>If money exists as a means of exchange then surely that money/value must be created, how?

how its always been created, by the government printing money and people receiving money, in this case with UBI.

>Do you feel as though innovation would simply cease if people stopped being paid for it?

yes. Profit incentivises innovation. for example, there would be no new drugs if it wasn’t for pharma companies making a profit from said drugs.

>The question game can go both ways and I don't see how any answers you'd be able to provide would be any less disastrous than an attempt to transition away from a growth/capitalist economic paradigm. Your failure of imagination doesn't change the underlying fatal flaws building in capitalism, namely AGI, environmental degradation, a post-fossil fuel energy economy and a globally shrinking population.

i don‘t see any other alternative. Communism and socialism have been tried and don’t work. Feudalism obviously doesn’t work. businesses need to exist, a planned / government economy also doesn’t work.

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Phoenix5869 OP t1_je5mbzt wrote

Why wouldn’t currency survive? Products, bills, services etc will still have to be paid for. And banking is essential for currency.

and the idea that a post scarcity society will end capitalism is silly. We grow enough food to feed the entire world at least twice over and food still costs money.

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Phoenix5869 OP t1_je5klv7 wrote

Submission statement: this post is aiming to promote a healthy debate about wether or not capitalism will disappear as a result of automation of jobs, while giving the viewpoint that it will not and explaining my reasoning. I am more than open to any counter arguments and welcome the possibility that i am partially or completely wrong.

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Phoenix5869 t1_je3gi3f wrote

i’m not an expert so i could be wrong, but i don’t think it works like that. Bacteriophages are specially designed to seek and destroy bacteria, and i don’t think they will work on cells. Could be wrong tho

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Phoenix5869 t1_jaaz7t2 wrote

I want us to become an interstellar civilization, however it’s going to be very difficult. The NEAREST star to earth is 4.2 light years away, that means that even if you travelled at light speed aka the FASTEST SPEED POSSIBLE, it would take 4.2 years to get there. Getting to a star 100 light away (which isn’t that far away considering) would take at least 100 years.

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