Comment on Bernie Sanders says that if AI makes us so productive, we should get a 4-day work week
JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoYes new jobs will be created but more and more wealth is concentrated at the top
It’s not the apocalypse but it’s also not not bad in many ways.
Technological progress should only be a good thing but in a capitalist society like ours it has a lot of downsides too (for the majority of the population ofc)
Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
But this isn’t an issue of technology or economic progress, but of politics. These are two different discussions. Jobs being automated away isn’t new nor is it going away. It’s simply a part of the evolution of economies. The issues we have stem from a flawed political system that’s not doing it’s job.
For our system to work as intended, we need to have a robust democratically elected government that proactively regulates the economy on the behalf of the people to protect consumers, the environment, and the health of the economy. This is one of the fingers of the invisible hand. A government is supposed to break up monopolies, ban deceptive and predatory practices, protect consumers from harmful products, make sure that businesses don’t pollute the environment, protect workers from exploitation, and so on. In other capitalist countries like Sweden, Germany, and Ireland they have this, we don’t… at least not anymore.
The reason for this is because there’s no accountability in our government anymore. No politician faces any consequences no matter the crime or controversy. Our public officials no longer fear the public, and this type of unchecked power allows them to be corrupt because they know they can get away with it. They have lost any incentive to do their job of holding bad actors in the country accountable and instead started doing their bidding (like endless deregulation and tax cuts for the rich). That’s the root of our issue, and blaming AI for it is just silly.
JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
First I’m not from the US
Second, yes ofc it’s politics. Nobody is disagreeing on that.
Third even in Europe this is becoming a problem even if the inequality gap doesn’t grow as fast