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Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared of Capitalism, Not Robots

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Re: Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared of Capitalism, Not Robots

#4

Post by nefitty »

Hey Paul Graham, one of the most respected intellectuals in the world wants to engage in a conversation you decided to be a part of. Do you care to retort? (Paul Graham is one of the founders of YC. Earlier this year, his defense of income inequality caused a stir across the internet: http://www.paulgraham.com/ineq.html)

Re: Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared of Capitalism, Not Robots

#9

Post by jokoon »

Not even reading this, but personally I'm more concerned about social darwinism, meaning the idea some people have, where the strongest should naturally dominate the weak in a societal context, just like it happens in nature. There will always be this idea that people who might starve, should starve.

I'm more scared about the ideological aspects of anarcho capitalism, which seems to be embedded in the libertarian ideology. Basically it would imagine a society without state or authority, which to me is the return to an uncivilized world.

So the knot here seems to be about basic income (based on Friedman's negative income tax), and how it would be financed. Somehow it seems to boil down to the problems talked about by Marx, which are about the means of production. Except now, the means of production require so little labor, but I still think Marx is relevant here.

I'm sure politically it's currently almost impossible to make companies give money back to non-contributing citizens in a form of taxes, especially in the US. But ultimately, that's where all the money will be, and I don't think special interests will always be able to argue to not give back.

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