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Socialism in which everyone can have a job and has to work less. So instead of having to work 5 days a week 8 hours a day you could be able to work half as much. That would give others work and people more free time to do things they like other than work.

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That ignores some very basic tenets of economics.  It isn't like you can support an infinite population on less and less work with equal pay.  Pay is a measure of production and if you reduce production overall you obviously can't give out the same pay.

If I work half as much I produce half as much if everyone does that it means there is half as much to go around.  Which means the cost of everything will double so you just made everyone work half as much for half as much...except you did it by force and the people who wanted to work the same to keep the same didn't have the option.

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With the on-going automation of everything (using robots, computers, etc.) there are less and less work places. But there are more and more people. And that's quite a bad combination. So what do you think will happen with human society?? If we don't do something about it, it will cause massive unemployment which would be devastating for millions of people. So I guess some change is needed in the whole work-your-ass-off-to-get-money-to-live approach. Any ideas??  

I posted a similar topic recently, but this time I'd like to focus on this question only.

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Automation will be devastating for a market economy.  

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Fact is, though, with new technology comes people who need to maintain it, people who will design, produce, and improve it, people who will distribute it, etc.  High tech industries which design those things would have a huge boom and greater demand for labor.  While you'll see unemployment rates increase at first, society will adapt over time.

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Maintaining technology isn't labor intensive in terms of sheer numbers. Compare the number of people working for the auto industry to the number of mechanics and you'll see a large disparity. Furthermore, it too can one day become automated.

Dragonking does have a point. When such conditions do hit us, socialism is an inevitability. The market becomes a hindrance.

Post edited at 1:22 pm on Sep. 6, 2008 by GeneCosta

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Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man
how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity. - Karl Marx

With the right combination of events, it could cause the further speciliazation of the populace and a more skilled populace.

With the wrong combination it could just cause alot of unemplyoment. The right combination is accessible 4 year colleges and trade schools. With a lack of labour jobs due to machines or foreign work, U.S. workers will simply be FORCED to become specialized in jobs only human beings can do or organize for the machines, such us Science fields and Technology fields.

Of course that is only the positive of probably several ripple effects of said topic.

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ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH

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Quote: from JohnTheNormalOne at 3:37 pm on Sep. 5, 2008

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With the on-going automation of everything (using robots, computers, etc.) there are less and less work places. But there are more and more people. And that's quite a bad combination. So what do you think will happen with human society?? If we don't do something about it, it will cause massive unemployment which would be devastating for millions of people. So I guess some change is needed in the whole work-your-ass-off-to-get-money-to-live approach. Any ideas??

I posted a similar topic recently, but this time I'd like to focus on this question only.

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Automation will be devastating for a market economy.

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Fact is, though, with new technology comes people who need to maintain it, people who will design, produce, and improve it, people who will distribute it, etc. High tech industries which design those things would have a huge boom and greater demand for labor. While you'll see unemployment rates increase at first, society will adapt over time.

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Maintaining technology isn't labor intensive in terms of sheer numbers. Compare the number of people working for the auto industry to the number of mechanics and you'll see a large disparity. Furthermore, it too can one day become automated.

Dragonking does have a point. When such conditions do hit us, socialism is an inevitability. The market becomes a hindrance.

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You need people to program the automation, you need people to service the machines, you need people to fabricate the parts, to insure, underwrite, design, you need people to sell the machines and install them, you need people to manage the payroll of the production company, and you need to hire advertising people, you need people to engineer new materials if you want to continually improve.

Instead of making cars you make robots, instead of designing the brake system you design the hydraulic feed of the robot.  Or maybe instead of welding something a million times you start your own business, go back to school, get a job as a teacher.  The only danger is being stagnant and thinking becuase a skill you have is in demand it will always be in demand.

More often than not jobs are not created, they are moved.

When you destroy a job by replacing it with a machine, the new job of making the machine, or supervising the machine, or whatever comes into play.

Jobs are constantly shuffled around.

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ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH