Henry Ford's philosophy was that if he paid his workers a higher wage, they would be able to afford the products they were producing, namely his Model T automobiles. This would, in turn, create a larger customer base for his company and help stimulate the economy by increasing consumer spending.
Replacement.ai
501–510 of 725 posts
Re: Replacement.ai
#502Agriculture used to be more than 50% of ALL employment in the USA. Now it's barely 2%. Ever wondered why? I understand the spirit of this, but most of this alarmism is misguided in my view.
> Now it's barely 2%. Ever wondered why? Mechanisation But did you ever wonder what happened to the displaced workers? I'm not an expert on the agricultural changes in the USA, but in the UK, huge amount of tumult can be directly attributed to agricultural changes.
The displaced workers went on to do other things. In the last 100 years for those very workers who "lost" their jobs to mechanization the overall standard of life for ALL american no matter how you measure it it better. There's fewer people living in poverty, people live longer lives, better infrastructure, and no widespread famine in the US I am aware of.
Re: Replacement.ai
#503Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's actually an extremely good analogy (but in the opposite way of what you imply), as you don't own your job or your wife. Banning AI for job security is like banning dildos because they make men feel insecure.
It's not limited to men. A lot of feminists are also vocally against the idea of female sex bots because it makes them feel insecure.
"a lot of feminists", source?
Re: Replacement.ai
#504Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now from what you've said I think they might be right. You don't get a full contract that you sign that details your job, leave entitlement etc in the US?
Unless it's a contracting or union position, what you get is something resembling a contract, but your agreement to it comes with the mutual understanding between you and your employer that no effective enforcement body exists to uphold your interests. If it says "you work 40 hours per week and have 4 weeks of paid vacation" and your employer, EVEN IN WRITING, compels you to work 60 hour weeks and not take any vacati…
Oh I'm aware workers in the US are treated extremely badly. In the UK statutory maternity pay is 90% of full salary for the first 6 weeks and around $250 a week for the next 33 weeks.
But I was just trying to clarify if work contracts were a normal thing there. The original post said they weren't where you seem to be saying they are, but effectively unenforceable.
Re: Replacement.ai
#505[flagged]
Given the overlap between reddit and HN ("Orange Reddit"), using cuckolding as a negative point of comparison probably wasn't the best choice.
Honestly reading the comments in this thread has convinced me that you're right that the blight between the two is nearly one in the same.
Re: Replacement.ai
#506Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s one scenario, but there are others. There are lots of open-weight models. Why wouldn’t ownership of AI end up being widely distributed? Mabybe it's more like solar panels than nuclear power plants?
Economies of Scale have been such a huge influence on the last ~by 300 years of industrial change. In 1725 people sat at home hand crafting things to sell to neighbors. In 1825, capitalists were able to open factories that hired people. By 1925, those products were built in a massive factory that employed the entire town and were shipped all over the country on rail roads. By 2025 factories might be partially automat…
I think a lot of people will be okay with paying $20 a month if they're getting value out of it, but it seems like you could just buy an AI subscription from someone else if you're dissatisfied or it's a bit cheaper?
This is not like cell service or your home ISP; there are more choices. Not seeing where the lock-in comes from.
Re: Replacement.ai
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that in the industrial revolution there was a migration from hard physical labor to cushy information work. Now that information work is being automated, there will be nothing left! This "embrace or die" strategy obviously doesn't work on a societal scale, it is an individual strategy.
Most people are not doing "information" work. They provide interpersonal services, such as health/aged/childcare or retail/hospitality/leisure. Techies are angsty because they are the small minority who will be disrupted. But let's not pretend most of the economy is even amenable to this technology.
> Techies are angsty because they are the small minority who will be disrupted. But let's not pretend most of the economy is even amenable to this technology.
Think of all the jobs that do not involve putting your hands on something that is crucial to the delivery of a service (a keyboard, phone, money, etc does not count). All of those jobs are amenable to this technology. It is probably at least 30% of the economy in a first pass, if not more.
Re: Replacement.ai
#508Personal belief, but robots coming for your jobs is not a valid argument against robots. If robots can do a job better and/or faster, they should be the ones doing the jobs. Specialization is how we got to the future. So the problem isn't robots, it's the structure of how we humans rely on jobs for income. I don't necessarily feel like it's the AI company's problem to fix either. This is what government is for, and n…
The problem is that the AI companies are most interested in displacing the existing labor force more so than they are interested in developing new uses of AI in areas that humans are inherently bad at. They are more interested in replacing good jobs with AI rather than bad jobs. It's not that machines are doing jobs better, they are just doing them for cheaper and by cutting more corners.
Best summarized in this comic: https://x.com/9mmballpoint/status/1658163045502267428
Re: Replacement.ai
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
> make a mess of the economy You're not taking something into account. The economy is becoming stronger, more productive, and more efficient because of this. The brain drain from all other fields to the few highest-paying ones is decreasing. > The people replaced by AI don’t have a similar path. They have a better path: get a real job that will bring real benefit to society. Stop being parasites and start doing produ…
> to create them, you have to get your hands dirty. But we're talking about a world where they're building robots to do this kind of work. When AI takes over the white collar office jobs, and robotic automation takes the manual "creating" labor, what'll be left for humans to do?
> what'll be left for humans to do?
There is an infinite amount of labor.
Re: Replacement.ai
#510[flagged]
Even though I disagree with this extension, I do think it’s an interesting and completely valid metaphor for your point.
How would we handle regulating sex bots? Complete ban on manufacturing and import of full size humanoid bots? They are large enough that it could be partially effective I guess. I’m imagining two dudes in a shady meetup for a black market sale of sex bot which is kinda funny but also scary because the future is coming fast.
Or in this case, a husband having police investigate and apprehend the wife in the act? Crazy times.