Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> At 08:19 AM 16/06/00 -0400, Mike Lorrey wrote:
>
> >As it is, only about a third of the population or so actually
> >works.
>
> How do these figures cash out, Mike? I can only assume you're including
> children (do you really expect them to earn a crust?) and women looking
> after children (unpaid, by and large--a scandal, in my view).
I agree that homemakers should be paid, but if you are the boss, you
ought to be able to fire them as well???? ;) Next thing you know, you'll
have wives suing husbands for sexual harassment in the workplace...
>
> >Demanding that a small minority do all the productive work, confiscating
> >half their production as 'taxes', so a majority can live in sloth is
> >what is really greedy and inconsiderate. Its modern slavery.
>
> If half the earnings of a small minority is redistributed to a slothful
> majority, the slothful can't be doing too well. Is it possible that there
> aren't as many satisfying jobs around for at least some of them as there
> used to be, when technology was less pervasive and powerful?
It doesn't cost as much to live when you are not employed. No daily
commuting transportaiton requirements, no need for work clothes, no need
for day care, and your health insurance costs are lower because you are
not put under working risks.
>
> More to the point, we need to confront the reality--or so I assume--that in
> the near future there'll be fewer and fewer jobs available for those not
> near the top end of the scale. With any luck, there won't be any
> toil-demanding jobs at all. What you dub `slavery' sounds to me like
> lucking in to a winning ticket in the genomic/cultural capital sweepstakes.
> If we can't manage a bit of humanitarianism, let's see some noblesse oblige.
I would counter that since job creation is a function of the supply and
cost of capital, when nanotech comes around, capital supplies with
greatly increase while costs will decrese, causing a huge explosion in
employment demand. A good chunk of this will be taken up by AI and other
computerization, but I would say that until androids are possible, then
there will always be a growing demand for human workers.
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