AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
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Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#2Autor was just on the Odd Lots podcast, so if you don't feel like reading the paper you can listen to the interview where he talks about it.
Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#3It's an interesting point, but in our society and current economic system I have a hard time imagining it will be anything so different as to what we have now to "restore the middle class".
We have people and companies with so much power that it rivals governments, and in the US we also have a large segment of the population who has been conditioned to believe that the government is bad and having less of it will make it better, but it seems to me like better government that actually supports the needs/desires of the populace at large is required to make our society better for everyone.
Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#4The problem with the concept of a middle class job (one where you can comfortably afford living, fun, saving, etc I think is most people's interpretations), is that it represents an unstable equilibrium state. Incentives of most businesses are the opposite of someone in the middle class. Businesses don't think in terms how they can take so little such as to perpetuate some idyllic lifestyle unimpinged, they think in terms of how much can they possibly take off the table for our own gain without bleeding the beast dry. This is why over time, middle class lifestyles get clawed away into more desperate paycheck to paycheck ones. So even if AI used well restores some middle class jobs tomorrow, what about next week lets say when companies realize they can charge more for goods and services, and people are back to paycheck to paycheck? Short of a planned economy with price controls I don't know how you prevent these incentives from emerging.
Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#5"air traffic controllers were paid a median annual salary of $132,250
in 2022, or nearly four times the $33,380 median annual pay of crossing guards"
It's not quite "expertise" that justifies the wage gap, it's supply and demand. Almost anyone can be a crossing guard--not everyone can be an air traffic controller. If AI theoretically could make anyone an air traffic controller, one would expect the salary to collapse as well.
Additionally, the notion of a middle class relies on a wage differential. If AI levels the playing field so dramatically, the notion of middle class will entirely evaporate since everyone's purchasing power equalizes.
Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#6The problem with the concept of a middle class job (one where you can comfortably afford living, fun, saving, etc I think is most people's interpretations), is that it represents an unstable equilibrium state. Incentives of most businesses are the opposite of someone in the middle class. Businesses don't think in terms how they can take so little such as to perpetuate some idyllic lifestyle unimpinged, they think in…
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Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#7"air traffic controllers were paid a median annual salary of $132,250 in 2022, or nearly four times the $33,380 median annual pay of crossing guards" It's not quite "expertise" that justifies the wage gap, it's supply and demand. Almost anyone can be a crossing guard--not everyone can be an air traffic controller. If AI theoretically could make anyone an air traffic controller, one would expect the salary to collapse…
Likewise I think the author makes the same error elsewhere. TFA states:
>The contemporary challenge is the high and rising price of essential services like healthcare, higher education and law, that are monopolized by guilds of highly educated experts.
The rising cost of education and healthcare are not exactly going to the "guilds of highly educated experts" as much as they are ballooned by second-order effects from an overly complicated system. For example, the higher cost of education is not going to professors as much as it's going to the administrative costs as colleges continue to compete for a growing supply of students willing to pay (in part because the mass availability of student loans allows them an extensive line of credit and also because the labor market makes it seem like they must get a degree to be competitive).
Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#8The problem with the concept of a middle class job (one where you can comfortably afford living, fun, saving, etc I think is most people's interpretations), is that it represents an unstable equilibrium state. Incentives of most businesses are the opposite of someone in the middle class. Businesses don't think in terms how they can take so little such as to perpetuate some idyllic lifestyle unimpinged, they think in…
Who are companies going to sell to if everyone is impoverished? The emergence of the middle class was a boon for businesses.
Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#9The problem with the concept of a middle class job (one where you can comfortably afford living, fun, saving, etc I think is most people's interpretations), is that it represents an unstable equilibrium state. Incentives of most businesses are the opposite of someone in the middle class. Businesses don't think in terms how they can take so little such as to perpetuate some idyllic lifestyle unimpinged, they think in…
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Re: AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]
#10The problem with the concept of a middle class job (one where you can comfortably afford living, fun, saving, etc I think is most people's interpretations), is that it represents an unstable equilibrium state. Incentives of most businesses are the opposite of someone in the middle class. Businesses don't think in terms how they can take so little such as to perpetuate some idyllic lifestyle unimpinged, they think in…
There's a whole range of options. We can make the state stronger without going full planned economy.
To pick a few things we could do: -> criminal liability for white collar crime -> muscular antitrust -> roll back citizen's united -> public option for health insurance -> taxes on real estate as investment
I don't understand why people think this is all or nothing. Plenty of countries are doing much better than the US on these fronts.