Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. You do not want to have too many poor people or somebody will take advantage of this and use them to overthrow whomever is in power and put himself in power.
Tanks make this a difficult proposition.
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Robots Don't Complain or Demand Higher Wages or Kill Themselves...
91–95 of 95 posts
Re: Robots Don't Complain or Demand Higher Wages or Kill Themselves...
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does someone with no money, no marketable skills, no way to afford education, no ability to exert physical power, continue to survive when the upper class only accepts appeals to their self-interest? Appeal to enlightened self-interest is more powerful than appeal to someone's "better nature". Find the sweet spot where those two meet. It does happen (that those two things meet) and that's the target if you want m…
You're not thinking this through. Rome had to avoid rioting because Rome didn't have tear gas. China does not have to avoid rioting. They are comfortable with using tanks to kill thousands of unarmed protestors. The circumstances have changed since Rome. Technology has changed them.
I don't think it's as simple as that. Wealth is a product of society and population. Billionaires need people to have decent incomes to buy their products or there isn't any money to hoard. Best to keep those folks pacified so you are reasonably safe walking around in life as a billionaire or you become a prisoner of your wealth. It seems to me the masses don't need billionaires in order to exist but billionaires need the masses in order to exist. Henry Ford stated he wanted his factory workers to all be able to afford a car so there was a consumer market available. If billionaires are too draconian, it can come back to bite them. Even presidents get assassinated. Piss off enough people badly enough and it stops being safe to be you, no matter who you are.
PS -- There are riots in London currently going on:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2861840
http://news.yahoo.com/london-rioters-battle-police-shooting-...
PPS -- I've seen a couple of comments on HN indicating the rioters are staying ahead of the police using Blackberries. I find this funny given your remarks about how technology has changed things.
Re: Robots Don't Complain or Demand Higher Wages or Kill Themselves...
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a hard time believing anyone could think that killing off half a billion people would be the way to go ... It just sounds too James Bond villanesque. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge#Number_of_deaths http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War... http:…
And those are just the groups who actually achieved it. Many more thought about it or tried it. The OP said he "can't even believe that anyone could think of [mass murder]." Think! Lack of imagination, lack of historical awareness, or just plain willful ignorance?
Lack of imagination, lack of historical awareness, or just plain willful ignorance?
Or perhaps I was just chose the wrong turn of phrase? No need to go on a pedantic nerd rage.
Of course people could think about it. Of course people have killed millions of people in the past.
What I was trying to say is that any sensible leader in a industrialised nation would not choose exterminating 50% of their population instead of than trying to affect social change.
Of course we could have another Stalin or Hitler or Pol Pot who tries for genocide again. But killing 50% of your population is much different to killing 5%. Those 50% are going to have friends so you'd be up against 80-90% of the population. It would just be more sensible to try to redistribute wealth at that stage.
But yes, I'm sure whack jobs can think about these things and with modern weapons you could probably do it etc.
Re: Robots Don't Complain or Demand Higher Wages or Kill Themselves...
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many of those 11.5/100k have been done at work , though? The 17 and this quote seem to imply those are just the ones happening at the buildings themselves: > To pacify its increasingly restive workers, Foxconn has repeatedly bumped up their wages, improved facilities, provided counselling and swathed its factories with nets to catch anyone leaping from a window. And, for comparison, the WHO gives numbers that are…
IIRC, foxconn provides on campus housing for the workers, so everything happens at the plant
That rings a bell, thanks! I do wonder why the (relatively) extreme measures exist if there isn't a problem, though. Straight PR could explain, but I find it a bit unlikely.
Re: Robots Don't Complain or Demand Higher Wages or Kill Themselves...
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many of those 11.5/100k have been done at work , though? The 17 and this quote seem to imply those are just the ones happening at the buildings themselves: > To pacify its increasingly restive workers, Foxconn has repeatedly bumped up their wages, improved facilities, provided counselling and swathed its factories with nets to catch anyone leaping from a window. And, for comparison, the WHO gives numbers that are…
IIRC, foxconn provides on campus housing for the workers, so everything happens at the plant
That rings a bell, thanks! I do wonder why the (relatively) extreme measures exist if there isn't a problem, though. Straight PR could explain, but I find it a bit unlikely.