User:Woozle/jobsolescence

From my comment here:

Let me put it this way:

Short version:

• Capitalism doesn't work when resources are allocated and production doesn't require much labor.
• Therefore: If you don't like my solutions, suggest some of your own -- but don't fool yourself that some variation on the status quo (some reform of the system that preserves its basic premises, some rearranging of deck chairs on the Titanic) is going to solve the problem.

Long version:

Premise 1: Some individuals (and the means of production they in turn own or control) have far more than they need in order to live quite reasonably happy, contented and creatively fulfilling lives.

Premise 2: Many individuals -- an increasing number, over the past few years especially -- do not have enough to get by on.

Premise 3: The combination of Premise 1 and Premise 2 is simply an intolerable, untenable, and unsustainable situation.

Are you with me so far? Any disagreements? I proceed in the assumption that there are none...

Conclusion 1: We therefore need to rearrange resources in some way that gives more of the surplus owned by certain individuals (see Premise 1) to certain other individuals (see Premise 2).

Feel free to object to this conclusion, without regard for any of the following.

Premise 4: The means by which resources have traditionally been distributed in our society has been that of "employment": an exchange of resource-tokens (money) for work performed.

Premise 5: As automation (aka "labor-saving technology") has progressed, the need for "work" has slowly decreased over time -- the amount of labor per person it takes to provide the basic goods and services everyone needs (in short: food, clothing, shelter, and medical care) has greatly decreased, from requiring a majority of the population to requiring only a minority.

Premise 6: As more and more of the basic resources needed for the production of those basic goods are allocated, it becomes less and less possible for someone not otherwise employed to earn a living by starting their own farm or other business. Those who have the money to pay, already have what they need; those resources not yet allocated cannot be developed at a price that is competitive with those offered by existing enterprises who got the "low-hanging fruit". (This explains why technology -- creating new products and services from existing resources -- has remained pretty much the only growth sector when measured per capita -- and now creeping IP imperialism is trying to "own" that territory as well, but that's another discussion.)

Premise 7: Indeed, even existing enterprises no longer need as many workers as they once needed. They are able to lay off employees while still maintaining or expanding production levels.

Conclusion 2: We have now a situation where fewer and fewer people are receiving a share of society's goods and services because the mechanisms by which those used to be distributed assumed that their labor was needed by society in order to produce those goods and services, which is no longer the case.

Conclusion 3: Therefore, we can't solve this problem by creating "more jobs" in a free-market system, because automation plus allocation of most workable production resources has created a permanent glut of employees -- one that will only get worse over the long term as automation increases.

Conclusion 4: Therefore, we can no longer depend on capitalism and markets to solve allocation problems -- without some fundamental rewriting of the basic rules upon which society operates.

I wish we could just come up with some likely-sounding fix that would get the old clunker running again, but I don't see how it can possibly work, given the changing environment.

(If capitalists had thought ahead a bit and been more willing to fund manned space exploration when the public was ready to support it, we might now be expanding the economy into the asteroid belt, and this conflict could have been avoided or at least postponed. I'm almost glad that this didn't happen, but in any case capitalism has shown that it doesn't know how to plan for the future worth a damn -- and the future has now arrived. #jobsolescence)