Indianrock (5/8/2013)
...In an ideal world, some portion of increased profits due to automation would be taxed or otherwise used for the common good. Many who were or would have been replaced by machines did migrate to other work -- but it seems like a bit of corporate-speak to think that takes care of everybody. Its not clear going forward that the "migration to other work" is going to absorb the displaced.
In an ideal world, profit gets pumped back into the economy. To a reasonable degree this is true. Profits get invested, investment creates jobs. Even when profits go to shareholders, those shareholders normally invest what they get.
...Reminds me of the old book Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, but at least there, the 75% or so of the populace permanently replaced by machines were put on some sort of government dole, not just abandoned as excess human baggage.
This is an unsustainable and destructive situation. Government dole (while certainly necessary in short term situations) is a non-productive drag on the economy, devaluing money and reducing everyone's wealth. What is needed is to pump the now unused labor into new constructive activities. The 80+% who once were farming did not go into permanent umemployment, they started doing other things with their labor. Even in the last 50 or 60 years or so, houses have become larger and more luxurious (room air conditining was a luxury and whole house AC was only for very rich), two and more car families far more common, we went from one TV to multiple color TVs to houses with multiple entertainment and computer devices (I notice, even in relatively lower income areas nearby, kids sitting on porches playing with laptops, smartphones and vid games). The range of foods available in markets is vastly greater, yet we are spending a smaller percentage of our household income on food than a few decades ago. Local department stores carry swimsuits year round, because so many mainstream middle class people can afford winter travel to warm locales (when I was a kid, that was the exclusive domain of the wealthy). Productivity frees up labor to do other things, things that couldn't afford to be done previously.
We should all ask ourselves what we would do when unemployment compensation runs out, and there is no clear path to gainful employment -- let your children starve, or pick up a gun. Sounds radical, I know, but the question needs to be dealt with.
That's a false dichotomy. The correct approach is to channel automation profits into new enterprises and products.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --