Thanks Jed for explaining this automation argument in detail again. It
is surprising how it seems impossible for humans to comprehend that
argument, because this has been the reality for decades. And we have
all the evidence if we just look around.
However automation is not bad thing. We just need to find new economic
rules and distribute the wealth produced by robots to the consumers in
some other means than wages. And really, we have only two choices.
Either we use Keynesian socialism or basic income. And we have already
tried almost every variant of socialism and mixed economic systems, so
we have only one real choice and that is basic income for all and free
market economy.
This will buy us several decades of time that humans can do little
(part time) jobs in service sectors what are still left for uneducated
people to do, and still get formidable level of income and without
that income distribution widens too much. (400 richest US-citizens
could buy the whole Finland, with credit of course!)
After all, the availability of jobs in the first place is only
depended on the median purchasing power of consumers. If we maximize
the net purchasing power of median people with basic income, then
there will be plenty of more jobs available in the first place.
Therefore basic income can give simple and complete fix to the problem
that Martin Ford proposed in the cited book. And turn it into the huge
economic asset. And cold fusion will be integral part of this
development, because it renders current economic systems obsolete in
overnight. It is like throwing a frog into boiling water.
–Jouni
