STEPHEN HAWKING SAYS WE SHOULD REALLY BE SCARED OF CAPITALISM, NOT ROBOTS.

[elleng]

'According to world famous physicist Stephen Hawking, the rising use of automated machines may mean the end of human rights – not just jobs. But he’s not talking about robots with artificial intelligence taking over the world, he’s talking about the current capitalist political system and its major players.

On Reddit, Hawkings said that the economic gap between the rich and the poor will continue to grow as more jobs are automated by machines, and the owners of said machines hoard them to create more wealth for themselves.'>>>

http://usuncut.com/news/edit-complete-hw-stephen-hawking-says-really-scared-capitalism-not-robots/

[Warpy]

1. Most of the world's work still isn't being done by machine

and very likely won't be. However, Hawking is correct about the pattern of end stage, poorly regulated capitalism. It is the most brutal system out there.

Human labor is continuing to be completely devalued while humans are being strip mined as consumers of things they no longer make and increasingly can no longer afford. See: the rapid decline in things like car ownership.

The system is already too top heavy to remain stable for long. The window for peaceful revolution and re regulation of capitalism is closing fast.

Crumbs from conservatives will no longer suffice. A complete overhaul is needed.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Actually, machines or no, there simply isn't enough work to go around...

Capitalism claims it should care that there are enough people out there earning to buy what you make and sell, but it ends up not caring at all.

At a certain point, you don't really care what you make and sell any more-- making and selling is hard work, and the rewards are slimmer than just sitting back and watching your money grow all by itself.

[Warpy]

4. There is plenty of necessary--vital--work to go around

but the people hoarding all the money away from the workers are terrified they'll have to pay people to do it, and that's just repairs and not replacement.

Just repairing the infrastructure could bring us to full employment, but the hoarding class doesn't use it so won't repair it.

The hoarding class has discovered their numbers keep going up if they just hire a few people to keep moving money from pile to pile. Why should they risk losing a few bucks actually building or making something when they can keep piling up more with no risk?

The problem isn't that there is no work, it never is. The problem is that no one is forcing the hoarders to pay for doing it.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. I doubt repairing the infrastructure would help much, even during the height of FDR's...

WPA and other programs, unemployment only went down to 14% or so, then went back up when he tried to pay for it. Unemployment was ultimately solved by WWII, and I doubt we want to repeat that.

No, although we certainly should repair the bridges and water works, what we need is a new industry. Automobiles, computers, airplanes... they all sprang form nothing and created a new economy. Apple and IBM did more to hire people than all the government program out there. So did AT&T.

But, they are well past their prime and rend to inhibit innovation rather than inspire it, so what's next?

[Warpy]

6. Well, not exactly

Congress in 1936 was full of fiscal conservatives who panicked and insisted on a balanced budget, thus ending the programs prematurely and ushering in the Great Recession of 1937. Had they allowed the programs to continue for a few years, they'd have been phased out naturally as demand increased and people were hired by the private sector.

The Great Recession of 1937 was what WWII "cured." Spending and employment skyrocketed and the fiscal conservatives are always ready to go into debt for war. They just hate going into debt to save the country from anything else.

Yes, the private sector generally provides all the jobs. However, without a bunch of people waiting around with money in their pockets to buy whatever goods and services a company is selling, they won't hire a single new employee to produce them. They're driven by demand and demand is what was choked off then and has been choked off now.

What fiscal conservatives never seem to grasp is that economies work from the bottom up, not the top down.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Economists and hiostorians will be arguing about 1936 for at least another hundred years, so...

we won't solve that here.

Supply and demand have also been argued to death, and while nobody seriously takes the Reaganesque supply side nonsense seriously, it's pretty well agreed that both have to be in some sort of equilibrium.

And a large part of the problem is that pricing is a huge part of that equilibrium. With, say, housing prices skyrocketing, that leaves little extra cash for other things, whether they are around or not.

'Tis a complex problem.

[BlueStateLib]

8. FDR promised to balance the federal budget

FDR began his 1932 campaign for the presidency espousing orthodox fiscal beliefs. He promised to balance the federal budget

[Warpy]

9. He also started out dumping agricultural goods to get the prices up

by creating shortages. Neither worked in a country where people were out of work and no one had money to buy anything.

IOW, he soon realized the true gravity of the situation and that the conservative rubric of his class was not going to work.

[brush]

3. The government has to step in, just as it did during the Great Depression

You're right, crumbs from conservatives will not do.

There are years and years of good jobs in repairing and modernizing our infrastructure. That could be the stop gap measure to boost the economy and stave off the end of end-stage capitalism.

If the repugs stand in the way of infrastructure improvements, look out because what else is out there in terms of jobs? So many have been off-shored. You can really off-shore infrastructure work, that is unless import workers.