Re: The robot economy (AKA how robots will steal your jobs)

royls_at_telus.net
Date: 07/31/04 

Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 00:42:32 GMT

On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 23:40:53 -0400, "Matt Timmermans"
<mt0000@sympatico.nospam-remove.ca> wrote:

>"Mark Monson" <m_monson@ztech.com> wrote in message
>news:QgeOc.58291$Yw3.55317@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
>> Remember that workers are the active force in a free economy. Workers use
>better
>> tools in order to produce the things that workers want to consume. In a
>free
>> economy there is no way for technology to permanently keep people from
>producing
>> what they want; no way for better tools to keep workers idle when they
>are willing
>> to work to produce.
>
>Unfortunately, there are 3 factors of production. Economic pressure causes
>the best land to be allocated to its most efficient use.

I would suggest that this claim shows a lack of acquaintance with
actual land use issues. There's hardly a city in the world that
doesn't have very valuable land that has been sitting idle for
decades. In most cases, a significant fraction of all the land within
the city limits has been sitting idle for more than a year, and that
applies even to cities where the value of land is sky-high, like
Tokyo. I vividly remember stumbling across a couple of
_square_kilometers_ of empty land in Tokyo that was occupied primarily
by an airfield left over from the Allied occupation. There were
derelict hangars, a few small aircraft using it for parachute
training, and that was it. I calculated that that land would have
been worth about as much as all of Ethiopia.

>Land owners will
>want it worked using the most efficient processes and tools, because that
>maximizes the available rent. That denies personal productivity to anyone
>who can't add value within that most efficient process.

True, there will always be people who just don't have the ability to
contribute. But I see no evidence that the proportion of such people
has increased significantly since neolithic times, despite the advance
in technology. Even with the recent computers, robotics, etc., people
of well below average intelligence can still find jobs. Japanese
department stores hire people to greet and bow to customers as they
enter. You have to be polite and presentable, but that's about it. I
would suggest that you have far too narrow a view of what can
constitute a productive contribution by labor.

>> Like a stone ax, a machine is simply a tool. Workers don't compete with
>tools. In
>> system with open natural opportunities, workers utilize tools to produce
>what they
>> want.
>
>You may be good with an axe, but you can't use it to make a living as a
>logger -- the company that owns the logging rights gets a good deal from the
>guys with the big machines. They're not going to pay you any more per tree
>than they pay those guys, and that's not enough to buy food when you're
>cutting down one tree at a time with an axe. If you can't operate the big
>machines, then you can't be a logger at all.

This confirms my diagnosis, above. There are more ways to produce
than the obvious ones. If you're _really_ good with an axe, maybe you
can make a living as a sculptor. There's a guy in this neck of the
woods who makes a modest living sculpting with a chainsaw at outdoor
shows.

-- Roy L

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