What To Do About The Long-Term Implications of Automation

Is.....Is that a question??....Or was it meant to be a statement?? I mean.....it has a question mark on the end of it and stuff....
....but based on the rest of your post, and what I've seen of some of your past posts I'm honestly not sure...Usually this isn't the sort of thing I'd even think to mention, but I feel like I've been confused by this before in your posts. To make things less confusing you really ought to consider not putting question marks at the ends of things which aren't actually meant to be questions. :/

Anyways, [rant over] to try and address what I think your concern is, I'm not suggesting that creating lower skilled jobs would be simple. Just trying to identify what our options are. What I actually think should happen, is that we should do what we can to create jobs specifically to fill needs and or wants which aren't currently being adequately met by the private sector. And then, whatever skill level is required to do those jobs, we should implement training and education to raise folks up to that level in the case that they aren't already there.

So not so much that we'd be explicitly setting the skill level of any particular job, the need or want of the service or product provided should without a doubt be the bigger driver, but I do happen to believe that by simply having a wider selection of jobs, we would automatically be more likely to have a larger number of jobs available to those with lower skills. If we follow the schedule I laid out in the Four-Phased Approach we shouldn't run into too much trouble.

I don't disagree with any of that, which is why I'm not suggesting we have humans try and meet the needs and wants that the machines are already adequately addressing. Rather, human workers ought to be directed into areas where the needs and or wants are not being met sufficiently.

I agree that Americans should always try their best, but while machines and AI are able to improve more or less indefinitely,...humans, with their pesky human limitations, are not. Like you were saying, humans may be able to delay the inevitable, but at some point those machines are going to overtake them in value. Did you happen to read the following:

"Want a better life? Want to pull yourself up out of poverty? Then you need to work more...
If you have a job, get an extra job. Still not earning enough? Get 3, 4, 5 jobs. However many it takes.
Can't find any jobs? Well you're probably not looking hard enough. Try moving to a different state.
Still can't find any? Then improve your value by furthering your education, or better yet,...create your own job!
Not enough money or start up resources for either of those options? Then take out a loan or 2 or 3. If the rich can do it, so can you!
Already in crippling debt and no one will loan any more to you? Then you probably should stop spending more than you take in.
You can't spend any less than you already do? That's silly, of course you can. Move out of your expensive apartment, sell your car and
ride a bike to work, and that way you wont have to spend any money on gas getting to your 5 jobs.....plus, you'll be in great shape!
Eat out less, cook more, and cut back on luxury foods like steaks, fish, fruits, and vegetables.
If a starving kid in Africa can live in a mud hut for pennies a day, then so can you!
And if its still not quite working out for you after that, then sorry, but its your own fault for doing drugs and having sex out of wedlock."​

^That is the sort of advice people were giving out a few years ago, and what you're saying now sounds uncomfortably close to it. So, seeing as how we do at least both agree that at least a certain amount of personal responsibility ought to be required, assuming that an individual does try to take personal initiative, about how far down that above chain of suggestions do you think we should expect them to go without success before we start to consider making changes to the economic system itself???

In fact, we are all limited in comparison to the vast potential of machines and automation. We all need to take time out to eat, sleep, recover, and go to the bathroom, among other things. But that doesn't mean we should just roll over and die. Society/civilization, if nothing else, ought to exist for the benefit of its citizens. If we cannot mold our society so, such that the citizens can enjoy some minimum standard of living and have the opportunity to advance if they are willing to put forth an effort,...then something is terribly wrong...

-Meta

 

Totally, and even if we were to manage to implement just under half of some of the suggestions that have been made in this thread, I'm sure the main issue of the thread would very quickly cease to be an issue.

Agreed!

-Meta

 

Perhaps, but how would one even begin to measure that?
Standardized testing??....

-Meta

 

Doesn't sound very scientific

Also, I've participated in this forum for a good while. And while I have seen some things get worse,
I've also seen a lot of things improve which makes me hopeful. Perhaps...its not so much that you're seeing a smaller proportion of educated people,...rather its that less educated folks have been afforded more avenues for having their voices heard over the last few years...

-Meta

 

I know that, which is why I'm not suggesting we attempt to do that. Again, what I consider the important factors are,
a) whether or not those on the bottom rungs are allowed to make enough to provide themselves with some minimum standard of living,
b) whether or not people in general are afforded equal reasonable and fair opportunities to move around the income spectrum as they desire (provided they're willing to put in the work).

And that's really a large part of the problem is it not? Government not doing what we need it to!
And without getting into all the reasons for why it doesn't make much sense for us to just expect every single person to be able to simply up and change cities or states any time they find themselves making under what the cost of living is for their area (keep in mind we're marching towards a future were people might be lucky to be paid anything anywhere, let-alone $15), I'll just say that, yes, government, local, state, and federal, should be doing what it can to maintain and improve our basic infrastructures such as housing, transportation, parks etc. and handling things like crime (of all types) and yes healthcare to an extent. And if our elected officials are refusing to do the things we need, then, I've said it before, we need to kick those sort of people out of office, and put in place representatives who will!

Which...again, is exactly why we need to kick out those representatives who refuse to do that job, and put in place folks who will.

-Meta

 

I think you're still missing the point here...once those jobs become automated, neither immigrants (undocumented or otherwise) nor native born citizens are going to be able to rely on them for support.

-Meta