Comment on Does technology actually add value to the world?
danhab99@programming.dev 11 months agoSimply put, if your company operates at a 50% efficiency and you bump it up to 70% with tech and automation, be assurance you are going to see job cuts and increased targets to produce more
And there’s the point. I do not disagree that technology puts people out of a job. What I want to understand is whether or not that technology is creating more value. And if so than more technology means more value which means we can eventually get to a place of so much societal surplus that we can reorchestrate soceity to enjoy the benefits of it. That’s the end stage of capitalism, it will become outdated eventually. Capitalism is a growth phase, and growth hurts, I’m the last person in the world to deny that.
The reason it ends is because there are people who are poor and sick and starving and I AM NOT OK WITH THAT! If I was than capitalism can persist, but I don’t want it to because I don’t want my fellow Americans, my fellow people, to suffer. There’s no way to acknowledge my priviledge enough when I say that yeah, people have to suffer for all of us to grow, and it hurts that some of those people won’t be there with us in the end, and it’s terrifying to think that I could be one of those who don’t see the end.
So that’s where my question is. If a company experiences a +30% efficiency boost due to technology, does soceity benefit from it?
habanhero@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I think the question to ask is value created for whom. Based on my personal and probably biased opinion, value is not created for the greater good but for the capital owners and shareholders.
Again, my opinion, but it’s not in the DNA of a capitalistic society to have surpluses so someone will capture it and try to squeeze out more. So in the event of a seismic technology advancement, my dystopian view is that the poor will not reap much benefits, and instead of billionaires, we will have trillionaires.
I think if there is a counterbalance to capitalism and corporate greed then yes, some of that value will come back to society. Perhaps an improved medication at cost, better transit, emergency response technology… But if we leave it in the hands of capitalists they will enrich themselves very quickly.