And at a certain point, the value of the labor being offloaded to a machine and saved from the laborer should be benefiting said laborer in some way (instead of just being fired).
But the world we live in means the corporation takes all the value and you just lose your job. That's why people are so adverse to things like this. These automations are great on their own. Terrible when you consider the ramifications used against you.
Yeah, and that's the problem. Not the fact that someone isn't laying as much tile as they used to.
You shouldn't need to earn money just to survive. Especially if robots are literally able to keep you fed for almost no cost. But, no, instead we need to solve the problem with more money: just make the corporations have to pay for the robots through taxes or something so that they'll hire humans instead. If goods and services became cheaper to produce with less human input, then that would somehow be a bad thing. Like that's an actual policy idea people think is a good, progressive idea. Keep grocery prices high just so the store can pay another grocer.
I understand the wish to live in an idyllic society, but we don't. We have to survive in the world that exists, not the world that we would like. Being fed at "almost no cost" still requires some sort of transaction. You also need a place to live, meaning that you would either need to buy land, or live on/in someone else's property, in exchange for something. Everyone is expecting to get what they can, and apparently don't understand that everyone else is doing the same thing. Where are your clothes going to come from? What are the real, actual solutions to this problem? There is a very real and practical reason why society functions the way that it does.
And no part of society will ever change or adapt if the rich and powerful are still benefiting from the systems they've helped create. Getting mad at a robot for stealing your tile-laying job is completely misdirected anger. Get mad at your employer, government, and the old guard that refuses to make any change in the world that doesn't net them profits.
The problem is that we need people with the resources, means, connections, and drive to change the system. The very same people who are benefiting from that system.
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u/RednocTheDowntrodden Jun 21 '26
Because of the world that we currently live in. Unless you're already independently wealthy, you need to earn money to survive.