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I don’t think bluefirebrand is in the tribe of “everyone must have a job or die” so much as they’re in the tribe of “everyone says I must have a job or die”. Like yeah if I was forced at gunpoint to possess something or be ostracized from society then I too would be a little perturbed if someone made an automatic “take away the thing” device.

by Vaushite7 hours ago|

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Yeah, correct, but I think it's also necessary to apportion blame correctly. Tribalism is a big part of the problem here. When people propose solutions to this problem they're often met with purely tribalist counter-screaming.

by bluefirebrand8 hours ago|

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You're spot on

My lifestyle isn't super expensive, but I can't afford to retire or anything. I have a mortgage that I still owe money on

by besterman237 hours ago|

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Well you’re not alone, I’m a little more stubbornly optimistic perhaps, but I feel your stress.

My comforting thoughts are, who is this all for, and what would happen if AI actually makes human labor redundant? Labs control the AI sure, but so much stuff is built around humans that it almost becomes comical to think it would be a bad outcome for a the average person.

Farms and land don’t cease to exist, houses/apartments don’t go up in flames instantly, people aren’t reduced to functionless sludge creatures as soon as they’re done being economic drivers. What’s the real plan? All the normal people die and a thousand or so chosen few sit around and watch AI videos and eat grapes until the heat death of the universe?

Nah, we’ll figure it out, perhaps it will be harder temporarily, and perhaps SWEs lose status before everyone else, but it will probably be okay overall.

by Vaushite7 hours ago|

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But the incentives are not aligned, we are slaves to Moloch, the god of path dependence as described in Slate Star Codex.

Imagine what happens if landlords decided one day to collectively demand more money than actually exists in the total monthly income of workers. What would happen?

You can point out that if everyone just stopped paying rent, their houses and apartments would still exist, and they could live rent-free as their landlords would have no money to spend on enforcement. Technically, this is not untrue. But it's not what would actually happen, is it? One person would be the first to default on their rent, and their landlord would use the money collected from all their other tenants to seize back that tenant's formerly rented property. No individual tenant would dare to be the first to stop paying rent, so they all continue paying rent, selling their stuff, taking out loans until there's physically no way for them to keep paying, and only then do they default.

by bluefirebrand5 hours ago|

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I might feel more optimistic if I hadn't been laid off and weren't struggling to find work in this new madhouse of an industry

I am strongly feeling I'm already redundant

by baq4 hours ago|

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‘Having to work for money’ beats ‘having to hunt and farm for food’ and it’s technically a small step away.

‘Not having to work and being warm and fed’ is called being a pet. Some cats and dogs enjoy this life greatly. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently.