[Xeoncross]

Ah, but it's cheaper. Replace "AI" with "auto parts" or "store food" and you see the same thing. Replace "AI" with "police force" or "contractors" and it's the same thing.

Why is everyone and everything getting worse? A sort of "Prisoner's dilemma" I suppose: no one wants to take a stand and lose their business edge just for principles sake.

[roxolotl]

This is why a political solution is the only way forward. I’m optimistic that people are finally fed up but who knows.

[oliwarner]

What sort of political solution is there? What intervention could roll this back?

[dragontamer]

Taxes.

If these companies can afford $trillions, then the government can collect some dues that can fund retraining programs or whatever.

[oliwarner]

Taxes on what? Corps are famously good at burying profits under expenditure and mergers.

And what are you retraining to? We've long abandoned serious manufacturing and mining. Most people's job is the application of knowledge and communication and LLMs are coming for them all. From retail and call centres through to doctors and lawyers.

We can't all retrain as plumbers, waiters and surgeons.

[dragontamer]

> Corps are famously good at burying profits under expenditure and mergers

Cool. Let's start with taxing those, or any other place where they bury or hide from taxes. Thanks for the suggestion.

We can also tax on the numbers of job losses vs capital expenditures. IE: if you spend a $Billion on stuff while firing tons of workers, you get taxed more.

-------

As far as retraining: easy solution. Whatever people want to retrain to. The details will work themselves out. The important tidbit is to have large scale mass retraining if this really is the future.

It's not like the government forced me into my current job. I'm more than capable of choosing a new field myself.

And if YOU can't see the possibilities, them you don't have to take the retraining program. But from my perspective, there's plenty of work needed in the USA to improve our country. Plenty of problems to solve.

[bdangubic]

yea, historically in the United States we have been successfully solving all our problems by collecting more taxes. nothing more efficient than giving money to our Government

[dragontamer]

What was our tax rate that got rid of our WW2 debt?

Taxes definitely solved that problem. And it even brought about the golden age of post WW2 US economy.

The correct taxes in the correct areas serve as an incentive structure to help encourage businesses and individuals to make good decisions. At least, that's what we did 80 years ago.

[bdangubic]

Taxes would not make top-10 reasons for post WWII “golden age.”

The US Government is at present (without any chances of this being fixed ever again) about the least efficient entity that exists on the Planet Earth and giving it more money will not solve any problem. It will be used though but one of the two political parties to win election(s) and kill any tax law that was previously put in place

[cdrnsf]

As opposed to unleashing tech folks on institutions to destroy them, increase costs and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths?

[insane_dreamer]

much of our current economic and social problems stem from efforts to collect _less_ takes from corporations and the wealthy. So yeah, collecting more taxes -- from those who can afford it -- would make a big difference.

[Redoubts]

Couldn't think of a more incorrect diagnosis if I tried. State government budgets have been ballooning for the last decade; but political leaders don't give a shit about tracking outcomes, only celebrating starting things and how much money they spend.

[bdangubic]

except that it wouldn’t. this is just another type of political shit that was put together by politicians here to fuck with us.

if your family is running a budget deficit, there are two ways to mitigate it

- make more money (drive uber and pizza (at the same time to make double money at night) or get a higher paying job

- stop spending so much fucking money

it seems politically, the left-leaning part of the countries and political party will make you believe that we just need to make more money, give that money to the Federal Government and all our problems will magically disappear.

the right-leaning part of the country and its politicians will make you believe that rich already pay a lot more than most (they do) and that taxing corporations makes no fucking sense (it doesn’t in general).

neither party actually gives a shit about the fact that country is drowning in debt which will eventually be its undoing (those who study history know this as absolute certainty), they are just looking for where more votes are there to be had

[archagon]

What intervention could <roll back the industrial revolution>?

On the technical side, perhaps none. But countless people in the labor movement spilled blood for their rights and dignity. Maybe something similar will be needed here, too.

[goalieca]

Datacenters.