We (the capitalists) are automating to cut our (their)
labor costs.(throats) We should think about the
implications. And, even without that capitalist
driving force, people's desire for leisure would build
automation, not to mention the avoidance of the worst
kinds of work.
Of course, the reduction in our need for human labor
can't ever go to zero, nor should we desire it. Just
the shit jobs. Productivity can't become infinite.
History shows that automation has not decreased or removed the most degrading human occupations. You still need a human being to sweep the floors, serve your food, nurse the sick and the elderly etc. Automation may have removed certain physically very taxing jobs (ploughing the fields) but has merely replaced them with other physically very taxing jobs (any job in construction). Replacing the "shitty jobs" by automation has so far been just a dream.
The govt. will never be more than a reflection. If
people want to take care of themselves they will find
the courage and the humility to think their way out of
a paper bag, and give-up on humiliating superstition
and perverse morality that makes work the main index
of respectability.
I agree with you that the capitalistic fetishes of GDP-growth, consumerism and work obsession are all undesirable. However even while you criticize the culture of "work obsession", you
appear to be advocating more leisure as the solution to all problems.
Humans are not Neumann-Morganstern utility maximisers (as NC-econ critics are fond of pointing out). However neither are they leisure maximisers. Forcing people to be idle in the name of conservation is as much of a perversion as today's work obsession is.
However there is nothing inevitable about today's capitalist evils such as growth-for-its-own-sake, wage slavery, unearned income, dehumanization of labor etc. And I agree with you that this hypocritical system with its disgusting post-Cold War triumphalism should be changed.
-raghu.
