Robotics alone can make employment obsolete, but add in AI and it's all the more true. This is a real economic conundrum that human civilization has never faced before.
The 40 hour work week was established due to the work of Henry Ford as he discovered that productivity quality dropped off after that many hours a week. The 40 hours wasn't settled upon because society/economy needed it, but because it was the most that could be efficiently provided by a quality worker.
Fast forward to today, and production can be maxed out with less than 40 hours of human work per worker. So fewer peolpe are needed to make things or the same number of people could work fewer hours for maximum production.
But then with less employment, how can workers make enough to buy what's needed? Unemployment goes up because fewer people are needed, and then homelessness goes way up like it is now. It's easy to then see the logic of concluding the world is full of too many useless eaters that should be exterminated with a vaccine.
But I'm not sure there's an ethical solution to a world where anything can be produced cheaply but without having anything close to the whole world working to produce those things.
The 40 hour work week was established due to the work of Henry Ford as he discovered that productivity quality dropped off after that many hours a week. The 40 hours wasn't settled upon because society/economy needed it, but because it was the most that could be efficiently provided by a quality worker.
I sometimes work 60 hours a week, but need a nap sometimes :)
Henry Ford also introduced the $5/day in 1914, but there were strings attached, namely his spies would watch you night and day and if you drank/danced/rented a room to family/failed to attend church/smoked/swore you only got the 3.00/day base pay.
Don't get me wrong, I think Henry was a genius, but for fucks's sake let's not celebrate him as some sort of libertarian idol, right?
Don't get me wrong, I think Henry was a genius, but for fucks's sake let's not celebrate him as some sort of libertarian idol, right?
I don't think what I said celebrated him but it seems he was the first to actually care or notice that there was a limit to how productive a human could be.
My point was that in the current age of robotic industry, it's possible that all people could be supplied with basic needs with the average work week being somewhat less than 40 hours a week.
I don't think what I said celebrated him but it seems he was the first to actually care or notice that there was a limit to how productive a human could be.
To me, Henry Ford's genius was in recognizing the idea that workers should be able to to buy the products of their labor. Mass production by the masses for consumption by a small elites tends to have limited appeal once the novelty wears off, seems like chores, lol.
My point was that in the current age of robotic industry, it's possible that all people could be supplied with basic needs with the average work week being somewhat less than 40 hours a week.
My question is "is it wise" to just crank out a consumer class of primates (including white people) just because it is technologically possible?
I don't think what I said celebrated him but it seems he was the first to actually care or notice that there was a limit to how productive a human could be.
As a programmer, I love Henry Ford. I break every chore into the simplest steps possible. In 1913 that meant having Worker-X put screw-A into hole-B a thousand times a day, because Worker-X was probably an idiot and that was the best way to utilize the manpower Worker-X brought to the table. Unfortunately, I still deal with workers who would best be utilized if I had a hole for them to drop a screw into. Human nature, but that type should be discouraged from breeding. Or at least not subsidized to breed with food stamps, Section 8, and free cable so they can watch PMSNBC. :)
he was the first to actually care or notice that there was a limit to how productive a human could be.
the average work week being somewhat less than 40 hours a week.
There are limits to one's endurance. But the Illinois State Highways did not care since in winter on the weekend we were called in 3 hours early for an 18 hour shift. That was 21 hours on the clock. I had to stop to nap a couple of times toward the end of that one.
It is hard to sleep in a day cab, but we had hard hat with a liner to keep the ears and neck warm in winter. You simply pull over and put out the headlight and put the plow down. You swing your legs across onto the passenger seat with plow controls between your legs, put your head in the corner of the cab and nod off.
You know you been sleeping when you wake up and the windshield is snow covered.
I work with several people that are mentally impaired. We currently work 6 hour days. One of the worst off only works a half day until lunch. He always says to me, "I go home before you do."