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In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

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Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way to “extract wealth from others” is to put them to work.

This is not correct. Look up rent seeking. If a company has regulatory capture it can seek the maximum profit and remain static (until it loses its capture). Generally it attains its maximum by exercising its pricing power. Exercising pricing power does not lead to more employees by the company.

Profit is the accumulation of promises other people have made to you that they will work for you in the future.

That is, after all, why people seek profit. They like the security in knowing that others will do work for them in the future. When you feel hungry, you want to know that someone will work to give you food. When you feel cold, you want to know that someone will work to provide you shelter. When you feel bored, you want to know that someone will work to entertain you. So on and so forth.

Unless people can offer work that you want to have done in the future, you cannot profit. Rent seeking doesn't change anything. You still need valid promises of future work in order to profit.

Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not correct. Look up rent seeking. If a company has regulatory capture it can seek the maximum profit and remain static (until it loses its capture). Generally it attains its maximum by exercising its pricing power. Exercising pricing power does not lead to more employees by the company.

Profit is the accumulation of promises other people have made to you that they will work for you in the future. That is, after all, why people seek profit. They like the security in knowing that others will do work for them in the future. When you feel hungry, you want to know that someone will work to give you food. When you feel cold, you want to know that someone will work to provide you shelter. When you feel bor…

Your knowledge of economics appears to be lacking. Your original statement that the only way to extract wealth from someone is by putting them to work is factually wrong for the reasons I stated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profit is the accumulation of promises other people have made to you that they will work for you in the future. That is, after all, why people seek profit. They like the security in knowing that others will do work for them in the future. When you feel hungry, you want to know that someone will work to give you food. When you feel cold, you want to know that someone will work to provide you shelter. When you feel bor…

Your knowledge of economics appears to be lacking. Your original statement that the only way to extract wealth from someone is by putting them to work is factually wrong for the reasons I stated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

> Your knowledge of economics appears to be lacking.

Well, duh. If it weren't lacking, what reason would there be for me to talk about it? There would be nothing left to learn. That would be a useless waste of time.

> Your original statement that the only way to extract wealth from someone is by putting them to work is factually wrong for the reasons I stated.

Go on. You stated that rent seeking accumulates profit, but as profit is merely the promise of future work, no wealth is actually extracted. Only a potential promise of future wealth is gained. Not until the profit is spent – as in people are put to work – can wealth be extracted out of those promises.

Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your knowledge of economics appears to be lacking. Your original statement that the only way to extract wealth from someone is by putting them to work is factually wrong for the reasons I stated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

> Your knowledge of economics appears to be lacking. Well, duh. If it weren't lacking, what reason would there be for me to talk about it? There would be nothing left to learn. That would be a useless waste of time. > Your original statement that the only way to extract wealth from someone is by putting them to work is factually wrong for the reasons I stated. Go on. You stated that rent seeking accumulates profit, b…

If it weren't lacking, what reason would there be for me to talk about it?

In case you don’t know this there are people knowledgeable about a topic who also talk about that topic.

Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#46
post #2

TLDR: "The future is bigger than we can imagine. Change is equally hard to comprehend. Two centuries ago, 80 percent of the U.S. population worked on farms. If you told one of those farmers that in 2024 barely 1 percent of the population would work on farms, he'd have a difficult time imagining what the other 79 percent of the population would do with their time. If you then tried to explain what an average income co…

Sure, somebody that works constantly in a field might not spend that much time imagining what the majority of the country would do if they weren't working all the time. But some other people that have much less demanding jobs did think that in the future people would barely work. This has become much more true for Europe than USA although as you'll see pointed out all the time, USA salaries are higher then Europe. I…

> he seems to have this idea that everybody would chip in only 15 hours a week in order to produce enough stuff for the whole of society. [...] we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on the butter-to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the problem for a great while.

And approximately a decade later, the United States did just that. The workweek was reduced to 40 hours to make what work there was to be done as widely as possible. He didn't get the number of hours quite right, but nailed the overall premise.

Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your knowledge of economics appears to be lacking. Well, duh. If it weren't lacking, what reason would there be for me to talk about it? There would be nothing left to learn. That would be a useless waste of time. > Your original statement that the only way to extract wealth from someone is by putting them to work is factually wrong for the reasons I stated. Go on. You stated that rent seeking accumulates profit, b…

If it weren't lacking, what reason would there be for me to talk about it? In case you don’t know this there are people knowledgeable about a topic who also talk about that topic.

For extrinsic financial gain, sure, but that doesn't apply here. The only potential gain here is the possibility of learning something.

Just as you have demonstrated yourself. You are no doubt knowledgeable in the subject, but have completely refused to talk about it, spending all your time focused on my character. Which is to be expected, as what more are you going to learn about the topic at hand? The only thing you might stand to learn something about is me.

Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Rich people tend to horde their wealth and seek more. When they have an opportunity to extract wealth from others they do so. The increase in economic growth from this extraction is minimal in comparison to the amount extracted.

The only way to “extract wealth from others” is to put them to work.

> The only way to “extract wealth from others” is to put them to work.

I guess you're thinking of people who have no assets. In that case, you're right, when people have no other wealth their labor is all that's left to extract. (And all they have left to trade for their daily expenses.)

What happens to people with no other wealth in an AI economy where labor has little value? That's a scary thought.

Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#49

This is a really poorly argued article, not sure even where to start dismantling the author's arguments. (Almost feels like ChatGPT wrote this article). But let's start with this "If H&R Block could replace 90 percent of its seasonal employees with AI, it would see its profits skyrocket, given that labor is its biggest expense. Those profits would be reallocated elsewhere, that would increase the potential for even m…

> H&R block, if any, will allocate more to share buy backs Okay, but then whomever owned the share previously and accepted the profit in exchange for giving the share back now holds the profit instead. What are they going to do with it?

Some will buy second or third homes, and lobby to prevent new development in more markets.

Re: In the AI Economy, There Will Be Zero Percent Unemployment

#50

This is a really poorly argued article, not sure even where to start dismantling the author's arguments. (Almost feels like ChatGPT wrote this article). But let's start with this "If H&R Block could replace 90 percent of its seasonal employees with AI, it would see its profits skyrocket, given that labor is its biggest expense. Those profits would be reallocated elsewhere, that would increase the potential for even m…

> H&R block, if any, will allocate more to share buy backs Okay, but then whomever owned the share previously and accepted the profit in exchange for giving the share back now holds the profit instead. What are they going to do with it?

Buy houses and lots, keep them empty, and speculate on their value.

Or just build their 6th mansion that uses a plot of land that could fit 400 apartments, keeping the people underneath them commuting 1 hour from their 80 square meter apartment.

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