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by palmotea 73 days ago
> Society is better if we sacrifice one horse and buggy driver job for two engineering jobs.

That's a "statistic" you're pulling out of your butt, and it's doing a lot of work. No one ever knows if something like that will actually happen.

It could actually turn out that AI sacrifices 100 engineering jobs for 10 low-level service or prostitution jobs and a crap-ton of wealth to those already rich.

> The drivers suffer from that, but the net win for society is so plainly obvious that it's a better investment to retrain the driver or just pay the off rather than support a job that dying anyways.

But what actually happens is our free-market society doesn't give a shit. No meaningful retraining happens, no meaningful effort goes into cushioning the blow for the "horse and buggy driver." Our society (or more accurately, the elites in charge) go tell those harmed to fuck off and deal with it.
2 comments
esafak 73 days ago
> It could actually turn out that AI sacrifices 100 engineering jobs for 10 low-level service or prostitution jobs and a crap-ton of wealth to those already rich.

That's where wealth redistribution (Taxation) comes in. The USA is not good at progressive taxation, but everyone could be better off if it were implemented properly.

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Izikiel43 73 days ago
> The USA is not good at progressive taxation

The top 10 percent of incomes pay 76% of all income taxes, the top 5% pays around 55% of all income tax.

I would say it’s pretty progressive.

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palmotea 73 days ago
> The top 10 percent of incomes pay 76% of all income taxes, the top 5% pays around 55% of all income tax.

> I would say it’s pretty progressive.

That's a lesson in misleading statistics. Inequality has risen to absurd levels, and just keeps getting worse. It's not "pretty progressive."

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Izikiel43 67 days ago
First, you are thinking of people whose main source of wealth are assets, not income.

Also, I don't think inequality is a problem, it's better that than everyone being equal, because as history shows, even then, there are some that are more equal than others, and others are just poor.

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nutjob2 73 days ago
> But what actually happens is our free-market society doesn't give a shit.

Maybe in the US, but in other countries those things actually happen. It's a political issue, not a moral issue with technology.

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