The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
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The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
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Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#2The thought is generally good but it overshoots the solution I think in one key respect: consumer priorities. I think for this post you are conflating consumer spending with luxury spending.
If indeed there were a single minded "consumerism" that strictly identified more or less meaningless items (luxury goods) as the key consumption then I would agree.
The fact is however, "consumer driven economy" simply is distinguishing an economy that predominantly privately spends more than it publicly spends, saves or invests.
To that point, I agree that we should be automating more things to free up all of our time. I hope someday to automate food production so that it can actually come full cycle, so there is definitely something there.
Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#3> Consumption doesn't improve economy or humanity in general. Neither does production. If you want to help, start automating things.
I'm not sure you know what any of these things mean.
Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#4Can someone clarify? I'm not sure what end goal the article is driving at. Are we aiming for more free time?
If that's the case, then I fail to see how automation helps. Companies have incentives to hire as few employees as possible -- it cuts down on administrative overhead, like the necessity of sending out a check to each employee. The result will be as many full-time employees as possible. The workers displaced by automation then move on to make other goods (perhaps napkins) or provide other services, with the same incentives to work full-time, and nobody has any more free time. The end result is just more goods to purchase, which the author seems to have disdain for.
Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#5>Fewer are willing to admit the culturally-exploratory, finding-yourself vacation experience we read about on a travel blog has pretty much the same level of benefit to society.
Totally lost me on this line. What's the point of being alive if you're not going to have experiences like travel. That pretty much only leaves work as an option to fill you're time.
Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#6[deleted]
Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#7>Fewer are willing to admit the culturally-exploratory, finding-yourself vacation experience we read about on a travel blog has pretty much the same level of benefit to society. Totally lost me on this line. What's the point of being alive if you're not going to have experiences like travel. That pretty much only leaves work as an option to fill you're time.
While I'm mostly in agreement with the rest of the article, I think on this point that cultural exploration does actually benefit society to a degree, because it results in people who are better educated about the world and less xenephobic/racist. If you spent a gap year in a particular country and have friends there, you're much less likely to support a war against that country.
Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#8One sized straw man =/=> all.
Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#9>Fewer are willing to admit the culturally-exploratory, finding-yourself vacation experience we read about on a travel blog has pretty much the same level of benefit to society. Totally lost me on this line. What's the point of being alive if you're not going to have experiences like travel. That pretty much only leaves work as an option to fill you're time.
While I'm mostly in agreement with the rest of the article, I think on this point that cultural exploration does actually benefit society to a degree, because it results in people who are better educated about the world and less xenephobic/racist. If you spent a gap year in a particular country and have friends there, you're much less likely to support a war against that country.
I'd agree that cultural exploration can benefit society by making people more accepting of each other. But I'd like to distinguish it as still being a form of consumption/production since no production is permanently improved. For example, if the person who did the exploration dies, unless they've done something clearly permanent to teach it to their kids or enshrine that learning, the experience will die with them. I feel like many vacations end up in that category, though obviously it's not a universal situation.
Re: The consumer driven economy is for people who don't naturally automate things
#10Article comes across to me as a very preachy, high falutin, very warped perception of what constitutes a modern economy.
If the end outcome of increasingly rapid automation means that a significant percentage of humanity ends up being unable to participate in economic activity due to an inability to acquire currency, then we are in big trouble.