Big business benefitting from AI, increasing unemployment levels. They need to pay more taxes to fund social benefits as a result.

[TheAmusedQuail]

I know it seems a bit futuristic. But the reality is that as AI develops, it will be able to take over a lot of jobs that people currently do.

Big business will rub its hands in glee at this (I'm looking at you Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma and Colin Huang (Temu) ) due to their increased profits.

But the reality is that more unemployment will result in more poverty. This won't just be due to laziness though. It'll be due to increased automation.

There is a lot of AI around us already but we're so used to it that we don't really see it. Self checkout at supermarkets. Cash point machines. Self serve points in fast food. Warehouse pickers. Car manufacture.

In other parts of the world, fast food restaurants have delivery robots. Health care AI (checking patient observations, delivering medication, they're already positing AI surgery (as opposed to human controlled remote surgery) ). Crop maintenance / picking.

The utopian view of this society is that humans will have a lot more free time and leisure. But the reality is that big business will still want to keep all the profit for themselves. We can't allow mass unemployment without funding however, and the companies reducing their need for staff through automation and AI need to be the ones to fund it.

Whatever.

Poverty that is not just due to lazyness? 🥱

Of course they're not going to fund it. What planet are you on? 😂

There was a time when even the ultra rich were talking about a universal basic income to compensate for this. But since Trump V2 Musk etc they have all let their utter venality show. The answer is actually better government. Don't vote for populists (actually fascists) and lobby other parties.

I know, shocking right? The idea of the undeserving poor etc.

I agree this is a massive issue we're walking into.

Amazon want to automate their warehouses, minimal savings to customers but large savings to shareholders.

Something has to give. This topic is being discussed and legislated on in societies more tech advanced than us.

Businesses are making thousands of people redundant. I don't know they think are going to buy their products if nobody has a job. I agree we need a universal basic income - if you earn more, you pay tax on it.

And yes the tech companies should absolutely pay.

Come the revolution...

@Summerhillsquare The answer is actually better government.

Exactly. But you can't have 1/3 (or more) of the population unemployed and below poverty level. It's a part of the reason (as well as climate change/war/famine) migration is so high. MAJOR talking point in Western countries. Like the things aren't linked!

@Nowthereistwo I agree this is a massive issue we're walking into. Amazon want to automate their warehouses, minimal savings to customers but large savings to shareholders.

Of course they do. Zero sense of societal responsibility.

Economies require consumers of goods and services as well as providers of them and competition over time drives markets which means that if businesses get more efficient due to generalised tech (which AI is) they tend to either drop real prices long term or provide more for the same real price. The massive profiteering you believe will result from all this isn’t a long term likely outcome. Likewise, I get that there can be short term disconnects from tech changes, long term every economic theory says the same that the result is not mass unemployment but new forms of employment. All of this is the reason why when previous massive tech changes came through that were arguably much more significant - the result was not mass unemployment long term and it would have been super counter productive to try and tax those companies at marginal levels that motivated them to move their profits elsewhere.

People will have to wake up and have fewer children so that peoples are a prized commodity

Mmmmm, that doesn't tend to be what happens in socially deprived societies, whether they be developing countries or those suffering as a result of social change.