| > The gains in wealth from automation over the last 50 years have almost _exclusively_ gone to the owners of the means of production Possibly because it is measured in some economic dollar-figure that removes all quality-of-life figures as part of the measure. If you were offered to live in the same house you live in, with twice the income BUT you could only buy goods and services at 1970s equivalent prices and 1970s quality and functionality, I wonder how many people would think that was a good bargain? (Ignoring retro-fiends). I remember a 1970s dishwasher, a 1970s car (certainly not two), 1970s TV, 1970s medical care, 1970s stereo, 1970s occasional takeaway highlight was KFC (I was young), etcetera. A tinny transistor radio that ran out of batteries was the equivalent of EarPods. You don’t even get a Sony Walkman 50 years ago (plus sound was shit with tape hiss and poor dynamics, and crappy headphones). What price would a newly produced VW beetle fetch (at 70s features and quality), assuming they had to sell 200000 cars in a year (how many would be bought for scrap)? How many Ford Maverick’s could you sell for $1000? We all have immense quality gains from automation, we are just blind to the slow improvements in quality of life (and some decreases too). The past at the same price (adjusted) is a lot lot worse than many modern people think. What is the consumer surplus of a modern laptop? You couldn’t buy an Apple ][ 50 years ago. Automation has given us a lot, but those gains are not usually measured because we can’t compare because there was no equivalent to most modern technology. |