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RE: My Response to the Atlantic's The Curse of Econ 101
I think we can use Automation as an opportunity to drastically reduce the cost of living. With a lower cost of living the 'average' person can work less while maintaining their standard of living. Then they can have the option of working less per week (with the business hiring an additional person to fill the missed time) or working hard now to reduce their retirement age.
The automation revolution could improve lives with no regulation gun pointing.
I like this in theory, but I also recognize the emergence of value which should be spread to individuals as you describe gets stolen off the top. $8 trillion in new currency was added over the last 8 years or so and yet we didn't experience hyperinflation. Sure, we had some inflation, but without injecting that money, shouldn't we have seen $8 trillion worth of deflation? Shouldn't prices have gone down and people's standard of living gone up? Instead, those at the top with government and banking connections seem to get first access to the new money (not to mention the military industrial complex) at the expense of everyone else.
The problem may be that we simply aren't satisfied. Our desires are limitless. In the future, people are going to be doing space tourism, just because they can. I'm not saying that's bad. It's actually pretty freaking awesome! But the reality is, some will use their increased potential to obtain more while others will be scrapping to get by because they don't have the education or skills required to provide value to a fellow human being enough to pay for their basic needs. What happens then? Do we get rioting in the streets?
This is exactly why we keep pushing decentralization, makes any system harder to control or game for personal advantage.
Hell yes! Preach it. :)