Bernie Sanders, Automation, and the Fate of the US

[eridani]

http://jackpineradicals.org/showthread.php?7813-Bernie-Sanders-Automation-and-the-Fate-of-the-US

If there's one economic argument Sanders likes to make, it's that income inequality in the US is unfair and out of control. Secretary Hillary Clinton and some of her supporters have complained that he's been a one-issue candidate on that very issue. However, I would argue that, if anything, Sanders doesn't emphasize the issue enough! The reason? Income inequality is bad now, but it's likely to get much, much worse in the very near future due to the effects of automation. We need immediate, drastic action, exactly in line with the policies Sanders proposes, and the moderate policies Clinton proposes will do very little to help with the severe economic crisis to come.

This may sound like over-the-top hyperbole, but I truly believe we are coming to a fork in the road, and one path points towards utopia and the other points towards dystopia. There is a coming automation revolution that will lead to a drastic reduction in the amount of paid employment in the US and in fact the whole world. I will prove it below with what I believe is incontrovertible evidence.

If there is a drastic reduction in income inequality at the same time automation drastically changes the economy, then the benefits of new technologies will mean that the vast majority of people will be able to enjoy very high standards of living while working much less than ever before. It really could be a utopian, golden age unprecedented in human history. But if present trends continue, nearly all the benefits will go to the top one percent or less, and most everyone else will have a nightmarish, hopeless future.

Think of the 2013 sci-fi movie "Elysium" starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, where a small number of people live in a luxurious space station and everyone else stays on Earth in poverty, fighting for scraps. Except probably for the space station aspect, that is exactly the general direction we are heading, because all indications are that the rich will keep getting richer and everyone else will fall behind.

[paulthompson]

1. Thanks, eridani!

Thanks for posting a link to my essay, eridani.

I actually posted it here at DU on March 15th. But I did that in the General Discussion: Primaries forum, and it seems a lot of people missed it there.

I highly recommend Sanders supporters give it a read. No matter how much you support him already, I think it may make you even more determined to see him elected president after you're done reading it!

Here's the link to the DU version:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511494371

It would be great if others could help kick that up from time to time.

Actually, I'd really like to have a website for it somewhere, but I don't have a website of my own. Does anyone have any suggestions for where i could give it a permanent home on the web?

[Baobab]

2. You're right

this is what a lot of scientists think too. Lots of experience with exponential growth in technology is needed to really understand this change.

[Baobab]

3. get a raspberry pi and host it on that..

you can use a dynamic dns update script to update your IP address with a lot of domain registrars now. Namecheap I think has that.

[paulthompson]

4. Huh?

Your whole post was Greek to me, starting with "raspberry pi." I'm clueless when it comes to techie stuff.

[Baobab]

9. for $35 - you can't go wrong

See here.


https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/page/2/?fish#raspberry-pi-3-on-sale

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/#serving-raspberry-pi-3-launch-raspberry-pi-3

[JDPriestly]

16. Thanks for a great essay!

[Califonz]

5. Back to the 13th century?

Subsistence agriculture and occasional plagues for 98% of the population.

[paulthompson]

6. Did you read the essay?

There's a dystopian future postulated that could be pretty bad and along those lines. Imagine the collapse of the economy due to lack of jobs, and then the collapse of the social safety net.

But there's also a utopian future postulated, and I think we have a good chance of making that happen. It all depends on if we as a country can get our act together or not. Right now things don't look too good, but once jobs start disappearing by the millions, attitudes might change fast.

[Califonz]

7. If technology hasn't alleviated poverty by now...

it probably never will, without the kind of political revolution Sanders is proposing.

[Baobab]

8. thats the whole idea of trade deals

Basically, future proofing, by setting groups against one another, all competing for the same jobs with wages approaching zero, eventually everybody will just eat one another.

Slick, huh?

[paulthompson]

11. Yes

Trade deals like the TPP must be stopped or the whole world will be dragged down into a dystopian nightmare.

Thankfully, opposition to them is growing. I hate Trump, but at least the fact that he opposes trade deals including the TPP is changing the debate and making it acceptable for Republicans to oppose such deals too.

[Bernin4U]

10. Well, Brother Ray has The Singularity happening in 30 years

At which point we may all be doomed anyway...

Your essay looks awesome, but too late to take it on for now.

[paulthompson]

13. The singularity

I tried to avoid all discussion about the singularity or such topics of robots/computers possibly turning against us or far surpassing us. Although those are worthy topics, I didn't want to get sidetracked.

[MisterP]

14. like it was 30 years ago

[paulthompson]

17. What do you mean?

I'm confused.

[appalachiablue]

12. Kick. Great compilation of reports on recent advances in automation that impact all of us.

[JDPriestly]

15. Excellent article. (I read what was on Jackpine Radical.)

Well worth reading. Thanks for posting.