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Yosarian2 comments on Kevin Drum's Article about AI and Technology - Less Wrong Discussion
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Comments (33)
I'm not sure that follows.
If the price of consumer goods and basic necessities of all types fell to almost zero, but we had large-scale technological unemployment (most people don't have a job and thus have little money), I would expect most people to just stop paying for most services and just do them for themselves (or for their neighbors, whatever). Which would then eliminate more service jobs, and so on.
You could easily get to a point where much or most of the mainstream economy just ceases to exist.
You are assuming that most people wouldn't have a job. I think most people would have jobs if scarcity only ended for consumer goods. We would still need plumbers, teachers, lawyers, cops, firemen, soldiers, doctors, investors, scientists, etc. The scary part is when AIs can do those jobs as well.
I'm not assuming that most people wouldn't have a job, at least not at first. I think that if unemployment goes above about 15% or so and stays there, the whole system starts to become unstable; that's the point where you tend to get either political change or revolution, if people aren't able to fill their basic needs.
Most of the things you list are actually professions that are mostly hired by the government itself, and the govenrment shouldn't have any shortage of money, since it can still tax the lights-out factories that are producing everything. Those jobs will continue to exist for a while, and in fact more services might move over to that bucket (for example, in the UK doctors are all employed by the government itself, and that model might spread). All of the private sector jobs, though, could start to disappear.