<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 11:29 AM, Paul Tidwell <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pmtidwell@gmail.com" target="_blank">pmtidwell@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">For clarification do you think robots are going to fundamentally change the market order?<div><br></div><div>Like it will take people's jobs and it won't create new ones because <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/<wbr>watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU</a>?</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I see robots as just another form of capital, and the question becomes what happens if a larger and larger portion of production only requires capital and raw materials and not labor? You really cannot divorce this process from the 40 year march of neoliberalism and the increase in power of capital over labor. </div><div><br></div><div>This development has encouraged monopolistic rent seeking behavior among corporations and those who own them. It becomes a vicious circle where more money goes to the top who cannot spend it all, and so plough it back into the finance sector which uses it to bid up the current set of financial assets or bring more things/potential income streams under their control. The rest of us have less to increase actual consumer/producer demand and so the economy suffers and austerity reigns which feeds on itself further.</div><div><br></div><div>Whether we will get new jobs depends on whether we break the cycle of austerity and the upward shift in income. Some suggest a basic income and I think that has a part to play. At least in the US income support programs geared at the poor are poor and serve to eliminate people's privacy so making them universal would improve many people's privacy. However, basic income solutions only go so far and if it were extensive enough to provide a decent income, it is possible working people would resent it. </div><div><br></div><div>Personally, I find the belief that people should get a lump sum to care for all of their needs (including health care and education) and leave them to the failings of the market for key areas like health care is a step backward. I would rather quality universal single payer health care before a basic income, but then I live in the US.</div><div><br></div><div>In looking for solutions, it is worthwhile to also explore a job guarantee. There are lots of work that needs doing (environmental remediation/cleanup/restoration for example) that the market won't provide.</div><div><br></div><div>Just my two cents.</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">peace,<br><br>James<br>--<br><span style="font-size:small">James O'Keefe</span><div style="font-size:small">Captain, Massachusetts Pirate Party / <a href="https://masspirates.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">masspirates.org</a><br>Vice Chair, United States Pirate Party / <a href="https://uspirates.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">uspirates.org</a></div><div style="font-size:small">w: <a href="https://www.jamesokeefe.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">jamesokeefe.org</a> e: <a href="mailto:jokeefe@jamesokeefe.org" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">jokeefe@jamesokeefe.org</a> m: 617-447-0210<div><font color="#000000">GPG key finger print: 9F7C 6B6C EA9F E2D3 6489 B826 A8B0 F73D AAFF 1FEC</font></div></div><div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Warning: This communication may be monitored and collected without consent, in secret, by the NSA, other intelligence agencies and corporations. Additionally, anything that you send me is likely to receive the same treatment. Please encrypt your communications well. They hate that. See </span><font color="#000000"><a href="https://prism-break.org/" target="_blank">https://prism-break.org/</a> for a list of tools you can use.</font></div><div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div><div><font color="#000000"><div>[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]]</div><div>[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]]</div><div>[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]</div></font><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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