• Avid Amoeba
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    2 days ago

    Well in capitalist countries there’s also the problem of distribution of the value created by automation that displaces workers. So workers have the incentive to not automate since they’re often left out of the value the automation produces.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Sort of. Automation temporarily eliminates jobs, but just like steam engines and other tools employed by workers, only transfer value, they don’t create new value outright. For the purposes of profits, automation merely offers a temporary upper hand until the market equalizes, unless a point of absolute monopoly has been reached, at which point it is unquestionably more in the favor of workers to rebel.

      Workers will resist machinery taking their jobs regardless, as it is a threat, but this process is inevitable and must be fought the same way it always has, by organizing so it can be made to benefit all.

      • JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch
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        6 hours ago

        I used to believe that it merely moves jobs, but recently started having doubts. Given the increase in productivity in the past 50 years and the stagnating wages, it’s hard to still believe. I mean, sure people will get new jobs, but I doubt it’s with similar wages and benefits.

        which is pretty self defeating as there will be no one left to buy the goods produced.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          3 hours ago

          You are correct, but this isn’t just about automation, it also extends to improvements in manufacturing technique and other forms of improving productivity per worker. Wages are stagnating because they are largely pressured towards a floor of “subsistence plus replacement,” and generally trend below that until crisis and correction.

          The solution is, of course, Socialism. Marx makes very compelling arguments that regularly prove more and more useful with respect to his predictions for the course Capitalism would take, and Marxist economists like Lenin and Hudson continue to analyze Capitalism’s monopoly phase and deterioration. The crumbling of the US Empire we are currently seeing is something that has long been predicted.