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The highest unemployment rate during the great depression was 24%. The knockon effects of almost 12% of the ecconomy losing work will make that pale in comparison. But hey, this 12% is probably just at the beginning. After all, AI is the worst it will ever be.

This seems like a recipe for guillotines or UBI. Wonder wich the rich will choose?

Edir: was he the first of many?

  • CeffTheCeph@kbin.earth
    9·
    2 days ago

    I have questions about the macroeconomic implications of AI replacing jobs. Does this mean that those workers will shift to other non-AI jobs? Or does this mean that unemployment goes up and there just aren’t any jobs for people any more?

    The way I am thinking about this, if corporations are able to hoard more wealth and increase profits substantially by getting rid of the need to pay people, how does the economy function if the money that would be paid to those workers is no longer circulating back into the economy?

    If people then will get money from a UBI instead of labor income, who pays the government taxes? Corporations? Consumption taxes on people?

    If corporations manage to get labor costs to near zero, profits go to near infinity, which is the goal of profit maximizers. But then there is no money in the hands of individuals to be able to pay to consume the goods or services these corporations provide? Is this desire to replace human labor with AI not just a living example of the myth of Icarus?

    Any economists out there interested in breaking these issues down into more of a layman language for me? Thanks!

    • Sunflier@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      31·
      2 days ago

      Does this mean that those workers will shift to other non-AI jobs? Or does this mean that unemployment goes up and there just aren’t any jobs for people any more?

      Well, it’s a nuanced matter. In the short term? People will shift jobs. But theres 2 peovlems with that: (1) this creates a glut of workers in the short term because there can only be so many plumbers; (2) it takes a long time to shift careers because there’s time needed to retrain.

      For 2, take doctors for example. If AI can do the job, that doesn’t mean that MD can just take off and be a plumber. That takes time, and its faster to make new Ai for other doctor positions too. In they retool to a plumber, they need to learn how a water heater works. Add onto that the massive investment into robo-tizing that. Also, it was a huuuuuge investmemt into being a doctor. It takes k-12 grade school, 4 year for your bachelor’s, then 4 more for the md. That’s 20 years.

      For 1, if there’s a glut, that means wages are suppressed. Also, that becomea an attractive field for AI to take over.