Our general standard of living is decreasing to keep favored failures afloat.
Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
But it does! Forever we have been making ‘labor saving’ devices. Whose labor? The work force labor! It should not come as a surprise that the only jobs that are growing are the ones robots have yet to take over. Tesla is working hard to make a new set of robots that will eliminate lots of “dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks.” I.e. more unemployment, fewer minimum wage jobs. Watch the video: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/tesla-robot-will-elimina…
At the same time Elon Musk is in favor of Universal Basic Income (UBI) which in my opinion is the wrong remedy. What if instead all of us had two or more TeslaBots, one for our own use and the others to hire out to make us a living?
As devices eliminate “dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks” we need to either have the talent to do creative work which will also in time be taken over by AI, and or be the owners of the productive capital of the economy, that is, have a wealth increasing stock portfolio.
The “standard of living is decreasing” only applies to parts of the cycle of progress. The standard of living might be lower than the last generation’s but it is certainly higher than 100 years ago and most certainly higher than under feudalism.
To solve ‘the problem’ you need a longer term perspective, not an instant cure.
The Captain