[MSFT_Edging]

Sure but the same optimizations that bring the costs down, bring down the average laborers value.

I'm not saying that things were sunshine and rainbows pre-industrialization, but there's some level of analysis to be done on the durability and value of a handcrafted piece of clothing, the care that goes into maintaining it, the value of a local economy, and the other side where you're forced to buy cheap items that degrade at a far faster rate.

If a town's local businesses are put out by a new walmart's ability to carry low prices, does the town truly come out ahead with those low prices? Or does Walmart simply extract more money from the town than it returns, leaving the town worse off?

[MacsHeadroom]

> bring down the average laborers value.

Labor has never been to afford so much luxury as the modern day.

[esoterica]

Those optimizations increase the value of labor by greatly increasing the amount of output per unit of labor. Do you understand how much wealthier the modern worker is than the pre Industrial Revolution peasant?

[MSFT_Edging]

Pre-industrial societies may not have had flat screen tvs, but they had time. The only thing you can't buy.

[esoterica]

They did not actually have time because they mostly died in infancy.

That said if you are satisfied with a pre industrial quality of life no one is stopping you from doing zero hours of work and just becoming homeless.

[MSFT_Edging]

It's always interesting to see the default argument of "u dont like it? just be homeless".

Where does that come from? I see it all the time. It's like there's zero ability to step outside the black and white. Either you must be totally onboard with the current system and not question the negative aspects, or you must live without dignity in the streets.

What I'm saying is we really don't need to be working 40+hrs/week in order to enjoy these advancements. People don't need to be made homeless in order for scientists who research these medicines to be paid peanuts.

[QuizzicalCarbon]

“They had time” is such an amusing, and inaccurate, assertion. Toil was a very real, everyday thing. The only way to avoid toil was to be on one’s deathbed.

[robbbed]

That’s a good point. What’s always been strange to me is why we as a community allow this. We should boycott the Walmarts and Devins of the world. Drive them out of business by voting with our dollars.