

The End of Work? - wslh
http://www.zagaja.com/2014/12/end-of-work/

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orionblastar
When cars got invented buggy whip makers went out of business. The horse and
cart was obsolete. People had to learn new skills and get a new education to
learn how to service cars and make parts for cars.

When the microcomputer, word processor, printer got invented a whole room of
100 people on typewriters lost their jobs because one administrative assistant
can press a few buttons to print 100 copies of a memo or letter to distribute.
Then that got replaced with attached files in email or on a file server.

There used to be five and dime stores, run by mom and pop operations. Until
Sam Walton found a way to bundle services at his five and dime store and then
use a computer to manage his inventory better and buy it in bulk at cheaper
prices to undercut the other mom and pop stores and then take on the big guys.
Suddenly Walmart put Woolworths out of business and caused damage to Sears and
K-Mart. But that was before Amazon.com got formed and did the same things but
with robots in warehouses to pick items for orders, and a 24/7 website with
bundled services with Amazon Prime to give free two day shipping, free videos,
and other benefits.

Now we got the Dotcom era with startups, each startup has a way to have a
website that automates things that does things cheaper or for free that puts
people out of work.

You even got programs that write programs now, you got Ruby on Rails that
anyone can use to create a web app even without knowledge on how a computer
works, without a degree, and with just six weeks of training in how to use it.

I myself had worked so hard automating things for companies that I developed
mental and physical illnesses from the stress and ended up on disability. I
took paper forms and made electronic forms stored in databases that put people
out of work and made the system more efficient. I super debugged other
people's programs to add in quality and security checks, but face facts
quality and security checks aren't always done anymore and there is no market
for me anymore.

Work is done by apps and websites, AI can write books and websites and apps,
almost everything is automated these days, and if not it soon will be.

Yet there exists a problem, the people who pay for this automation that makes
services and products no longer have jobs, they cannot do work because their
job was automated and getting a new education in an advanced area is expensive
and how can they afford it without a job? Even if they do earn a degree the
student loan debt will cripple them if they cannot find a good paying job that
can pay off enough of it that they can afford a house and car.

At some point you will see Unemployment, Disability, Social Security going
away and replaced with Basic Income. Basic income will be paid for by taxing
the corporations that use robots and automation and giving it to people who
can no longer work for any reason at all. There will be resistance to this,
but it will have to be done or face a major homeless and poverty problem.

There are still ways to earn an income without a job, make a series of Youtube
videos and advertise on them, write books, try to become an artist or musician
and do a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign to form your own company, etc.

