Issues of the future

[MaC]

what issues will arise in the future that are very small or non-existent now and how will parties campaign on them?

Will the robot rights amendment pass?
Will cities almost become states within themselves and fight with their respective states?
Will there be an amendment to limit the amount of Supreme Court Justices?
Will the "Concentration Camp and Relocation Act of 2031 pass?

what do you think?

[Gabu]

"Will the Plan for Renewed National Purpose pass?"

(anyone who gets this is a nerd)

[Hatman 🍁]

what issues will arise in the future that are very small or non-existent now and how will parties campaign on them?

Will the robot rights amendment pass?
Will cities almost become states within themselves and fight with their respective states?
Will there be an amendment to limit the amount of Supreme Court Justices?
Will the "Concentration Camp and Relocation Act of 2031 pass?

what do you think?

You tell us, Houdini

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Whether to give every American a living wage paycheck thanks to most of the jobs being replaced by robots.

http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm

[Gabu]

Whether to give every American a living wage paycheck thanks to most of the jobs being replaced by robots.

http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm

Just thinking about this idea logically raises some serious issues, namely, the following:

What do businesses need to survive?  Money.
Where do people get money?  Jobs, if you're a worker, or customers, if you're a business owner.
How much money will people have if robots do everything?  Zero.

Zero jobs = zero money = zero surviving businesses.  Therefore, I don't see how robots could possibly take over every single human job, if we assume that business owners are even in the least bit rational.

Businesses are not like some heartless automaton that only cares about increasing output into infinity; they're entities run by humans and that depend on human customers to survive.  If robots heighten productivity, but make it so that nobody is capable of being a customer, they won't improve that business; they'll run it into the ground as it collapses due to not having enough buyers.  People who claim that robots will take over every single job under the sun are missing the critical point that businesses need humans in the form of customers as much as humans need businesses.

I personally predict that, eventually, the mechanization of businesses will reach an equilibrium, after which point any further mechanization will actually lessen profits due to not enough potential customers, and at which point mechanization will stop increasing.

[muon2]

Whether to give every American a living wage paycheck thanks to most of the jobs being replaced by robots.

http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm

If one takes the line of logic to the extreme, you get the world described in Fred Pohl's 1954 novella "The Midas Plague". It's a great story satiring the consumer-driven lifestyle in a world with overproduction by robots.  Pohl stands the entire supply-demand model on its head, and it is still worth reading 50 years after its original publication.

[Erc]

Whether to give every American a living wage paycheck thanks to most of the jobs being replaced by robots.

http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm

Just thinking about this idea logically raises some serious issues, namely, the following:

What do businesses need to survive?  Money.
Where do people get money?  Jobs, if you're a worker, or customers, if you're a business owner.
How much money will people have if robots do everything?  Zero.

Zero jobs = zero money = zero surviving businesses.  Therefore, I don't see how robots could possibly take over every single human job, if we assume that business owners are even in the least bit rational.

Businesses are not like some heartless automaton that only cares about increasing output into infinity; they're entities run by humans and that depend on human customers to survive.  If robots heighten productivity, but make it so that nobody is capable of being a customer, they won't improve that business; they'll run it into the ground as it collapses due to not having enough buyers.  People who claim that robots will take over every single job under the sun are missing the critical point that businesses need humans in the form of customers as much as humans need businesses.

I personally predict that, eventually, the mechanization of businesses will reach an equilibrium, after which point any further mechanization will actually lessen profits due to not enough potential customers, and at which point mechanization will stop increasing.

Well, unless we're dealing with monopolies here, factors like "if I fire my workers, they won't be able to buy my own goods" is never an issue for any employer.

Ultimately, there will always need to be people to control the machines.  And, in the long run, there will be enough jobs of such type for everyone to have one--otherwise, all this human capital goes to waste, which would be pointless--so either everyone has jobs controlling the machines, or it gets to the point where labor is so cheap they can undercut the machines (sort of along the lines of what you were saying).  In the meantime, there would be unemployment as people develop new skills--but there will always be room for humans to have jobs.

[ATFFL]

"Will the Plan for Renewed National Purpose pass?"

(anyone who gets this is a nerd)

"A Mind Forever Voyaging on strange seas of thought alone."

 yeah I will get any Infocom reference you post.

Damn, I would love to get a lot of people around here to play that game and get a discussion of it going.

For those of you who have not played this real gem of a game, read about it here.

[Gabu]

Well, unless we're dealing with monopolies here, factors like "if I fire my workers, they won't be able to buy my own goods" is never an issue for any employer.

Well, if every employer in the world fired all of their employees, as is the case with people that predict that robots will take over industry, it would certainly be an issue.

"Will the Plan for Renewed National Purpose pass?"

(anyone who gets this is a nerd)

"A Mind Forever Voyaging on strange seas of thought alone."

f**ck yeah I will get any Infocom reference you post.

You win the prize.