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Financial_Donut_64 OP t1_j60vx7e wrote

Reply to comment by mihaicl1981 in How life with UBI could look like by Financial_Donut_64

Question that we're kind of left with is, if AGI is so powerful that it can replace almost all human workers - wouldn't it do so for a fraction of the cost? Obv. then the incentive for companies would be to just make more profit, but maybe it also leads to a scenario where consumer goods like cars (and even teslas) also reduce by a substantial amount in cost.

How much of the price of a consumer good is determined by the number of employees working to produce that consumer good?

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grahag t1_j61ni99 wrote

> How much of the price of a consumer good is determined by the number of employees working to produce that consumer good?

While that cost is factored into the cost of a product, the profit margin can be arbitrarily decided.

In a healthy economy, supply and demand is key, but we're in a new age of artificial scarcity where key manufacturers can restrict the flow of a product to boost prices and deny products to the multitudes. Housing, healthcare, fuel, electronics, virtual goods, etc are good examples.

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