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MonkeyParadiso OP t1_j866mih wrote

Reply to comment by TheSensibleTurk in Question: what are the best answers you've seen to what could be done when AI starts replacing labour en masse in and across industries? by MonkeyParadiso

Consumption is used in the expense formula to calculate GDP.

I think corporations can just lay off people, and profit by having greater profit margins distributed between less employees and shareholders.

The government would lose if Consumption falls due to Tax revenue loss. But that too could be overcome if they just start cutting G expenditures and letting unemployed people at the margins just die out. It's not like we do a great job with our homeless population now, even though we have more food than we need to feed everyone AND greater aggregate wealth than the world has ever seen - like 300% per average person in the 1970s, in the West.

The environment is already quite stressed by the massive load of people on the planet, so there are environmental benefits to be had by reducing the global human population.

Also, people are going to be able to live longer, and I don't know how that's going to get paid for, unless we let people go.

It's an interesting argument, but I'm skeptical 🧐

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TheSensibleTurk t1_j86fzwc wrote

Why not just skip the extra steps and utilize an industrial scale liquidation program then? Not like it hasn't been tried before. What do you think? Random lottery? Oldest person or the firstborn of every household? Or some kind of an aptitude test and a certain percentage of those who fail get "let go?" Genetic screening to favor those with the least amount of inheritable disease genes? /s

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MonkeyParadiso OP t1_j885tus wrote

No, I don't think that's necessary. Just say in America, we pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps, this is not a welfare state.. Adam Smith.. QEd. And go on with your merry way. We're already doing it and it's scalable :) Starving, disconnected social outcasts don't make for good revolutionaries; I believe it's all already codified in the Rules for Rulers Playbook

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TheSensibleTurk t1_j886atf wrote

America very much is a welfare state. You don't even need to be a citizen to qualify for a variety of aid programs. As we saw in the SOTU speech, the otherwise fiscally conservative GOP balks at the prospect of cutting social security or sunsetting other welfare programs.

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MonkeyParadiso OP t1_j8csldu wrote

I can't argue with the trillions of $$$ spent on the bailouts of 2008 and corporate subsidies before & since.

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