Article

2016-05-20 Science & Technology

Economic models are changing. We must deal with it.

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Posted by Besoeker 2016-05-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 Lots of good stuff in the article, but lots of stuff that won't work, either, Besoeker. For example, the bit about automated cars will only work in cities and close-in suburbs, due both to economics and logistics. And disruption is something everyone likes until the disruption includes their own income stream. That doesn't mean some things don't need to be disrupted, but we all need to be honest about it.

One of the biggest mistakes we've made is letting the business school types tell us that every industry fits into a "bigger is better" model. Not only is this untrue form a math standpoint, trying to make it work has destroyed communities and resulted in industries trying to provide something that is not what consumers want.

The guy's basic premise is accurate, though. The Blue State model has been dead for decades, and its stinking zombie corpse has been kept alive by irresponsible politicians and citizens motivated by completely unenlightened self-interest, the mechanism being 1)borrowing and 2)thuggish inflating of pay rates for most lines of work above what can be sustained. Not just here in the U.S. but throughout the developed world.

When those jobs come back, if ever, they will be done by robots. All unnecessary, if politicians hadn't told workers that the economic times of the postwar era could last forever in the real world, and workers hadn't been so foolish to believe them. If the work force hadn't told themselves that they deserved so damned much more money than the invisible hand would allow, most if not all of those jobs would never have left and automation wouldn't have made economic sense.

We are living at the end of a three-generation fantasy that voting for what feels good and enhances our status is better than voting for what actually works. Certain groups within society have been the worst actors in all this but every group to one extent or another has contributed to this lunacy.

Posted by no mo uro 2016-05-20 05:48|| 2016-05-20 05:48|| Front Page Top

#2 Lots of good stuff in the article, but lots of stuff that won't work, either... nmu.

I absolutely agree. In the marketplace of ideas however, it is not vital that all ideas pan out. It is only vital that the marketplace continues to thrive.

Posted by Besoeker 2016-05-20 05:54|| 2016-05-20 05:54|| Front Page Top

#3 Butherian Jihad....

suddenly you need legions of clerks and government progressing at the speed of TSA lines.

Posted by Procopius2k 2016-05-20 08:01|| 2016-05-20 08:01|| Front Page Top

#4 ooops, Butlerian..

Posted by Procopius2k 2016-05-20 08:01|| 2016-05-20 08:01|| Front Page Top

#5 All power to the Kaiel!

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2016-05-20 11:30|| 2016-05-20 11:30|| Front Page Top

#6 What we do know is that humans’ utter dominance on this Earth suggests a clear rule: with intelligence comes power. Which means an ASI, when we create it, will be the most powerful being in the history of life on Earth, and all living things, including humans, will be entirely at its whim—and this might happen in the next few decades.

So you wanna be the one who controls it. You want to be the system administrator who controls access to this machine. You want this machine to be on your side. You better study computer science and study hard.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2016-05-20 12:30|| 2016-05-20 12:30|| Front Page Top

#7 So you wanna be the one who controls it... You better study computer science and study hard

More likely it'll end up being the same elite-school-educated bozos currently running things.

And we'll end up with the same results.

Posted by Pappy 2016-05-20 15:10|| 2016-05-20 15:10|| Front Page Top

#8 More likely it'll end up being the same elite-school-educated bozos currently running things.

You mean like healthcare.gov?

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2016-05-20 16:22|| 2016-05-20 16:22|| Front Page Top

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