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Will AI take our jobs?
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Capitalism won't allow for the end of work because of AI

Capitalism will not allow for the end of work as AI becomes more common in the workplace. For example, new jobs will emerge to manage and control AI. Jobs will not disappear, they will evolve to reflect developing technology.
capitalism economics politics
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Context

The market, politicians, and heads of industry will all adapt to the automated world by creating new jobs, even if they aren’t truly essential jobs

The Argument

Capitalism is such a successful economic model that it has inbuilt coping mechanisms for difficult transformations. The market will absorb the shocks of job losses by creating new wealth for the owners of complex automated technology, who will then create new industries, which in turn will create more jobs. All previous economic shifts - the globalisation of markets, the shift away from agriculture to industry, the creation of financial markets - have led to job losses in some areas, and job creation in new areas.

Counter arguments

Capitalism has never faced a problem so great as mass automation. The way in which capitalism creates new jobs is to allow for mass poverty and inequality. If this happens on the scale that automation promises it will, then human society as we know it could be irreparably damaged.

Premises

The market forces of consumer capitalism are too powerful to break, and will adapt for a new AI-based society by creating new forms of work for humans that AI won't be able to do.

Rejecting the premises

The market claims to distribute equally, but soaring inequality levels dictate that it has failed in this regard. The market is simply not as logical and fail-proof as people make it out to be.

References

This page was last edited on Tuesday, 6 Oct 2020 at 07:37 UTC

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