>>35413I'm no economist, but I don't quite agree that there can ever be any definite
human productivity cap of resources. Humans are so small, so fragile, and so insignificant in the universe. We've yet to even conquer another planet, much less harvest the moons or stars.
On a smaller scale, a large part of Africa and other wild resources remain untouched due to poor management by the locals. The full depths and wonders of the ocean remain unexplored, and all in the meantime human consumption continues to become more and more efficient.
Sure, as a result we've now have to sustain a larger population, but will those same people to continue coming up of new and innovative ways to manage resources? Absolutely. They have to if they wish to continue being alive, and if they don't, well, people die, but it's ok because there would still be a remaining population in accordance with what resources they have. And they'll continue on developing with the knowledge passed on.
The only cap of productivity is the mindset that innovation is limited. While in a material sense the planet may seem fixed, human ingenuity continues to excel time and time again. Just think what it would be like if we developed a means of energy that creates more than it can consume, a kind of holy grail, wherein we can enjoy absolutely clean energy indefinitely without laying a finger on the environment!
Suggesting such a dream can't be possible is as close-minded as someone sharing to people in the past that someday instead of horses, people would be regularly riding giant mechanical beetles of steel steered by a wheel, in possession of a small rectangular device capable of contacting another person on the other side of the world in an instant, with simultaneous access to all of the world's free information. And in the future, it's so common and unremarkable that nobody gives a shit about it.
>>35752
>Automation is already in full swing, I think I read a stat somewhere that between 2010-2015 we lost a huge amount of the workforce but profits and productivity increased. It's unsustainable in the long term, as you need people working to buy products, and the problem is that other people need to have desires for services/products that other people make.I don't quite see what's so "unsustainable" about this. Thee seems to be this massive scare against automation because people fear of it taking their job overnight, but in a bigger picture, automation benefits everyone as goods are being developed quicker, cheaper, and more efficiently than ever. Personal inconvenience of job loss isn't a very strong point against something that benefits and progresses everybody as a whole if basically people get to enjoy a higher quality of living.
Especially the entire "as you need people working to buy products, and the problem is that other people need to have desires for services/products that other people make" bit, and I don't mean to pick on you personally, but why would that exactly be a bad thing?
Automation doesn't create things into the void with the goods disappearing into the ether – it's true that someone may purchase the goods supplied by automation, but they simply don't necessarily
have to. They're just not forced to buy goods. A businesses creating things for the sake of it doesn't seem to be particularly competitive, and will go inevitably go bankrupt without customers if it just feels like pointlessly making unappealing things.
What this would mean then, is that automation will only serve
for the people, not
against them, because if people don't purchase a product then they will not be giving the business any money. They'll buy the cheapest and most practical good supplied by machines, and it will only get cheaper, while people focus on present human-only occupations until the machines can catch up. And it will be a long while before the bots actually do in more abstract jobs rather than "build X faster".
>outcome is that physical resources prices will rise eventually,I'm sorry, but how would physical resource prices rise eventually?
It would seem that they can only get cheaper, because if business A is using automation to provide goods but doesn't lower their prices, business B might use the opportunity to undercut their competition as they can afford it with less overhead and staff costs provided by automation. The result? Business C, E, F, and G, might try to get on the boat if A and B don't lower their prices to compete to secure money better than their competitors. Overall, resources will get cheaper.
>People simply won't be able to afford resourcesWell, that kind of begs the question though, is that more importantly how are businesses still getting enough customers to run itself if people aren't buying what they produce?
Profit doesn't come from the ether, if a business' first and foremost objective is to acquire more capital, they would need to make something attractive for people to buy if it wants to survive – and that means lowering prices if they have to.
>The totally free internet, as a result, will have to die.Eh, you raised a lot of good points, but nothing can compete with free. Even if a website asked "You need to pay a penny to see this YouTube video or movie", in my opinion as a principle, people would be disappointed as the thinking would go along the lines of "Why do I still have to technically pay for something I could of gotten for free?". They'll go elsewhere that provides to their needs, and that website would slowly lose a customer base.
People hate paying for things, no matter how small, if the principle or reasoning to pay for it doesn't hold up. It's an interesting psychological phenomenon I think, that no matter how cheap the parking costs might be at an area, I find myself still driving around for an alternative if it means "I'm just not paying for parking" as long as I'm not pressed with time constraints. Or maybe personally I'm just a massive cheapskate, but if someone says "It now costs a quarter to use this elevator that used to be free for public use", I think a lot more people would end up using the stairs, or at the very least be dissatisfied with that building's management and may go elsewhere if they could.