It’s Labor Day here in the US, and automation and its implications is something that again, has been weighing on my mind.

Here’s the short, to the point summary in two graphs:

To spell it out: the fundamental problem with automation is that when workers (lets call them the “proletariat”) are displaced by automation, they don’t see any of society’s productivity gains – those benefits are instead captured and concentrated by a smaller and smaller set of owners/capitalists (lets call them “bourgeoisie”).

Economic and technological logic is no doubt going to inexorably drive this displacement, but it’s not going to address the resulting social instability creating a massive and literally unsustainable underclass.

Related recent articles/discussion:

• AMERICA IS AWASH IN MONEY, YET POVERTY GROWS: WE NEED A BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE (HN)
• What did the tech CEO say to the worker he wanted to automate? (HN)
• Why a medieval peasant got more vacation time than you (HN)
• I’m Striking Because I Can Barely Afford To Eat On My McDonald’s Salary