Million Dollar Handcuffs

http://www.aminariana.com/essays/million-dollar-handcuffs

by proksoup • 10 years ago

31 3 10 years ago

riskable2• 10 years ago

Missing in this parable: All the Type 1 workers getting out their pitchforks because Type 2 worker put them out of work, leaving them with no safety net and no useful skills in the new trench-based economy.

Nor is the fact that because Type 2 worker demonstrated how to solve the problem other villages will now be competing for the same water source. Creating political tensions that could lead to war ("over water" :).

Then there's the problem of too much wealth being held by Type 2 resulting in a village tax base that can't afford a war ("over water"). Type 2 sees the writing on the wall and moves his wealth overseas where the village can't touch it and declares that, "everyone should be thankful!" for what he's done. They no longer have to carry buckets of water, after all.

siberianbear• 10 years ago

I have a lot of sympathy for the OP’s position, having worked as a Type 2 in Silicon Valley and having made enough money to retire and live off the investment interest at a relatively young age.

From the position of Type 2, the problem with Type 1 is that they are not Type 2. They just don’t understand it.

But Type 1 can’t understand it and isn’t going to understand it. Type 1 (as a group) is increasing in number and getting angrier and louder, and it’s clear that this trend is going to continue.

I fear what the endgame will look like....

riskable2• 10 years ago

I fear the endgame as well. Even if you take the position that Type 2 deserves enormous wealth for his accomplishments you still have a limited resource pool from which income can be drawn. It's not a zero sum game but it might as well be if economic change happens fast enough.

We cannot turn our backs on people because their economic value has diminished to almost nothing. Type 1s are not worthless even if they have no chance at making a decent income.

If we've reached the point where there's enough automation to care for everyone's basic needs (as a threshold of human labor; not "absolute automation") then we shouldn't be insisting that everyone work for the sake of working.

I live with and care for an autistic adult with an IQ around 60. She's not family but if we didn't take care of her who the hell would? Her economic value is basically negative. If she gets a job it would only be to keep her busy. She can't even add up coins let alone keep track of a bank account.

It's easy to see how someone with an IQ of 60 has no economic value. However, as time goes on and more work gets automated the intelligence-to-economic-value ratio assimilates higher and higher levels of intelligence.

Soon--maybe even right now--the economic value of an able-bodied human of average intelligence will reach zero. When that happens the Type 2 people (and their friends, descendants, cronies, etc) will basically own everything. Civilization depends on that not happening.

If we want to live in a civilized society we need to do everything we can to ensure that doesn't happen.

Million Dollar Handcuffs

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