Are We Headed For 'Automated Luxury Communism'?

I work upwards of 80 hours and week and not because I am starving because I am creating a good future for myself and my family. Like any good monkey should.

a reply to: Daalder

A smartphone can do just about anything, but it can't fix a toilet, paint your living room, install drywall and so forth. It's a long way off from complete lack of need for human labor.

originally posted by: DanDanDat

originally posted by: Edumakated
a reply to: DanDanDat

But what if an "incentive" plan where built into this technology driven luxury communismitc system? Instead of everyone being made equal in outcome; have tiered access to the luxury created by the new world economy. The more you contribute to the collective the more luxury you have access to.

I don't see how this is any different from capitalism. You are rewarded based on the value of your labor.

Capitalism involves more than just rewarding labor (individual property rights for example) and doesn't require proper compensation for that labor.

In this society there is no individual property rights; the luxury of society is owned collectively by all in society. It is acces to society's luxury that is given or taken away based on ones true level of contribution.

How is society supposed to determine "luxury". Luxury is a capitalistic construct where an enterprising business positions it's good higher than it's competitors by price, quality, and quantity.

Capitalism does require proper compensation as it is solely determined by supply and demand. The reason you have ditch diggers who don't make a lot of money is because there are a lot of people who can dig ditches hence the driving down the cost. On the other hand, a pro athlete can make millions because there are very few people who can play the game at a pro level. Further, the revenue generated by activites is also what determines compensation.

Someone in sales may make more than the CEO of the company because the bring in a lot of revenue. Meanwhile, some schlub in accounting not so much as their job, while important, is purely a cost center and generates no direct revenue for the company.

originally posted by: DanDanDat

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: DanDanDat

The real answer you may be looking at here is what if we developed a different cultural reward mechanism that wasn't based on the base mammalian instincts but rather of higher values?

Yea I'd go with that; can big data and technology be used to create a cultural reward mechanism based on higher values? ... or if not "higher values", what if it was used to create a more economical ROI for all. What you get out is directly proportional to what you put into society?

The "big data" would have to be made available to anyone who wishes to use. It's the equivalent of a raw material like iron ore. It has to be processed, purified in order to have the useful stuff extracted; knowledge insights.

But big data consists of petabytes of information - it's not possible to move it to where it is needed, the processing has to be done by supercomputer. Practically the processor units have to be moved to where the data is. And that ties the wealth to those to have the access to money that can accumulate vasts amounts of data and get the funding for the supercomputers. Then anyone who wants to use the software must also be trained up - so it is basically research labs who can do this.

originally posted by: Daalder
And meanwhile people suffer in dead end underpayed jobs and can't even afford a house and a decent meal while working 60 hours a week?
Unless some sort of revolution: not in a million years.
Remember that TPTB are way to conservative and want to keep status quo at all cost.

But you/we have the perfect tool to stop them. And we've had it for decades. Birth control/abortion. As long as people are reproducing, the wealthy/powerful are at least breaking even.

a reply to: BrianFlanders
Industry has already developed 3d printers to build structures, including a house in any design ordered. The addition of interior components are not far from automation, also.

There will be some strange looking architecture coming out of that.