[neutronicus]

Health care, elder care, child care are all chronically short of willing, able bodies.

Most people want to do anything but these three things - society is in many a ways a competition for who gets to avoid them. AI is a way of inexorably boxing people back into actually doing them.

[weatherlite]

Totally agree; these are all in need of bodies plus they are always understaffed (why the hell does a nurse need to oversee 15 patients in people have to rot in ICU for hours? We accept this because it's cost effective not because it's a decent or even safe practice). Governments could and should make conditions in those professions more tolerable, and use money from A.I to retrain people into them. If a teacher oversaw 10 kids instead of 35 maybe we'll have less burnout and maybe children get better education. If had more police there would be less crime and less burnout. Etc etc. The thing is what happens untill (and if) we get into this utopia.

[neutronicus]

> Governments could and should make conditions in those professions more tolerable, and use money from A.I to retrain people into them.

FWIW, my vision was not really this utopian. It was more about AI smashing white-collar work as an alternative to these professions so that people are forced into them despite their preference to do pretty much anything else. Everyone is more bitter and resentful and feels less actualized and struggles to afford luxuries, but at least you don't have to wait that long in the emergency room and it's 10 kids to a classroom.

[weatherlite]

I don't think it's Utopia either (I was being a bit sarcastic) but it's the best case scenario; the worst case is governments do nothing and let "the market" run its course; this could be borderline Great Depression levels of depravity I think.

As for those professions; I think they are objectively hard for certain kinds of people but I think much of the problem is the working conditions; less shifts, less stress, more manpower and you'll see more satisfaction. There's really no reason why teachers in the U.S should be this burned out! In Scandinavia being a teacher is a honorable, high status profession. Much of this has to do with framing and societal prestige rather than the actual work itself. If you pay elder carers more they'll be happier. We pretty treat our elders like a burden in most modern societies, in more traditional societies I'm assuming if you said your job is caring for elders it is not a low status gig.

[reeredfdfdf]

Yea, the future is either UBI, or employing a very large number of people in public sector, doing jobs that are useful, but not necessary something free market capitalism values right now.

Either way, governments need to heavily tax corporations benefiting from AI to make it possible.