SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the how-many-robots-does-it-take-to-screw-in-a-lightbulb dept.
Digital technology has been a fantastic creator of economic wealth, particularly in the twenty years since the Internet and World Wide Web were unveiled to the masses. And with non-trivial applications of artificial intelligence (such as Apple's Siri) finally reaching the mainstream consumer market, one is tempted to agree with pundits asserting that the Second Machine Age is just getting underway.
But Yale ethicist Wendell Wallach argues that growth in wealth has been accompanied by an equally dramatic rise in income inequality; for example, stock ownership is now concentrated in the hands of a relative few (though greater than 1 percent). The increase in GDP has not led to an increase in wages, nor in median inflation-adjusted income. Furthermore, Wallach says technology is a leading cause of this shift, as it displaces workers in occupation after occupation more quickly than new career opportunities arise.
This piece led to the latest iteration of the 'will robots take all of our jobs' debate, this time on Business Insider, with Jim Edwards arguing that the jobs lost tended to be of the mindless and repetitive variety, while the increase in productive capacity has led to the creation of many new positions. This repeated earlier cycles of the industrial revolution and will be accelerated in the decades ahead. Edwards illustrated his point with a chart of UK unemployment with a trend line (note: drawn by Edwards) in a pronounced downward direction over the past 30 years. John Tamny made a similar point in Forbes last month.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Dunbal on Monday June 08 2015, @12:15PM
people will still be shitty to other people
I'd say that people will be even shittier to other people, out of boredom. Idle hands make for mischief.
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Monday June 08 2015, @03:10PM
I don't think so: lack of economic burden != boredom. And idle hands make for art, poetry, music, stories, philosophy and science.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 08 2015, @03:25PM
Didn't you learn anything from school bullies? Not all people with idle time are designed in way to do something useful. Instead the start gangs and rob other people etc.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @03:59PM
Maybe just give them PCs and some MMOs/online games and they can go rob/kill each other in games.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Dunbal on Monday June 08 2015, @05:52PM
Yeah there's so much art and poetry coming out of high welfare areas in the US right now. No rioting and looting at all.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @06:36PM
Blacks and whites are different.
So are women and men.
White men produce art, programs, science, etc when unemployed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2015, @06:23PM
Unemployment leading to art and other productive things requires one to have food and shelter. If you're starving to death or living on the streets, your sole focus is going to be finding food and shelter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @10:24PM
What amazes me about this scenario is that folks have overlooked/forgotten the need for humans like Lister and Rimmer. [wikipedia.org]
-- gewg_