Tell that to the 3d man in the cab of the diesel locomotive. Tell it to the army of office workers spread across acres of floor space in office buildings, as seen in '40's movies. Tell it to the engineers sitting at drafting tables, each with T-squares and plastic triangles, as far as the eye can see. And of course the ubiquitous buggy whip. We need the buggy whip to explain the truth. All these armies of human beings, busy 9 to 5, beavering away, have disappeared. Along with bank tellers and seltzer delivery truck men, and ice delivery men, gone to technology job graveyards every one. Never to return.
The above figure shows that this is far from anecdotal nostalgia: from the peak, the percentage of all income that is labor income has fallen steadily by almost 10%, irretrievably, and not to be recovered, over the last 50 years.
Can we really have large numbers of people permanently not engaged in human labor? Don't we need labor to give us self worth and dignity? Don't we need it for material sustenance? Don't we need it for the economy to grow?
When machines produce more than enough agriculture and goods to meet the need, so that a great deal of human labor is just no longer necessary, then how does that work economically? Well, the government re-distributes from the laborers to the non-laborers, and the government goes into debt and prints money. No one objects if that is done under what is seen as emergency conditions. A permanent emergency. Farmers are paid not to farm. People are paid not to work. Machines, more rather than less, end up replacing human labor. Utopia?
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