Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by valray 1160 days ago
In a few years, as mid-level cognitive tasks get automated by LLMs, resulting in elimination of some percent of well-paying white-collar jobs, there will be economic dislocation and social disruption.

Oligarchic capitalist societies with a hypocritical philosophy of free market economics (such as the USA) will experience social unrest and civil strife.

In the meantime, social-democratic societies that have effective governance and can grow their safety net with universal basic income will be advantaged in this new economic order. Thinking Scandinavian and some Asian economies.

The geopolitical balance of power will shift toward stable societies that are able to make the conceptual leap to UBI. Others who follow the primitive fantasy of free market economics will crumble and get left behind.

At least that is how it looks right now.

1 comments

Maybe. I don't see any reason to assume the US won't continue to successfully a) escalate police power to keep citizens under control, b) continue giving people just enough crumbs to keep them from getting violent, and c) propagandize the hell out of the idea that societal mismanagement is a matter of personal responsibility. China has done pretty well while clamping down on civil liberties, and the US has always been better at obfuscating and spinning similar tactics to be more palatable to its citizens. And you only need to look at the rust belt to see what happens when US business leadership decides to follow the cheaper option.

Though, regardless of ensuing social unrest, the fact that the people involved are human beings should be enough to not treat them like used condoms when computers figure out how to do their jobs. Should be.