Robert McChesney: Capitalism Is a Bad Fit for a Technological Revolution

[boutons_deux]

challenge to the idea that technological advances always benefit humans and a framework to envision a digital age that will benefit workers over the super-rich.

But we argue the idea that technology will create a new job to replace the one it has destroyed is no longer operative.

Nor is the idea that the new job will be better than the old job, in terms of compensation and benefits.

Capitalism is in a period of prolonged and arguably indefinite stagnation.

There is immense unemployment and underemployment of workers, which we document in the book, taken from entirely uncontroversial data sources.

There is downward pressure on wages and working conditions, which results is growing and grotesque inequality.

Workers have less security and are far more precarious today than they were a generation ago; for workers under the age of 30, it is a nightmare compared to what I experienced in the 1970s.

Likewise, there is an immense amount of "unemployed" capital; i.e. wealthy individuals and US corporations are holding around $2 trillion in cash for which they cannot find attractive investments.

There is simply insufficient consumer demand for firms to risk additional capital investment.

The only place that demand can come from is by shifting money from the rich to the poor and/or by aggressively increasing government spending, and those options are politically off-limits, except to jack up military spending, which is already absurdly and obscenely high.

So contemporary capitalism is increasingly seeing profits generated not by its fairy tales of entrepreneurs creating new jobs satisfying consumer needs, but by monopolies, corruption and by privatizing public services. It is hardly hitting on all cylinders.

....

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35946-robert-mcchesney-capitalism-is-a-bad-fit-for-a-technological-revolution

monopolies, corruption and by privatizing public services: EXACTLY the VRWC strategy over the last 45+ years

[CosmicCowboy]

It's no secret that technology is replacing "dumb" jobs.

[boutons_deux]

It's no secret that technology is replacing "dumb" jobs.

it's the smart jobs that are being targeted now. And before they are gone, BigCorp has been paying stagnated wages for 40+ years, cutting benefits, outsourcing to smaller companies that pay less and lower benefits, exporting jobs to low-wage, low-regulation unsafe, polluted hell countries.

"The former head of the robotics program at DARPA (the Pentagon's high-tech incubation lab that spawned much of the digital revolution) wrote last year that the coming developments in robotics and artificial intelligence are almost impossible to grasp.

He compared them to the "Cambrian explosion," the period 540 million years ago when in a relatively short period life went from simple to highly diverse and complex forms.

He said that the one area where the effects will be seen soon and in a sweeping fashion is the economy -- many jobs will be easily eliminated by businesses wishing to significantly reduce their costs by deploying robots and artificial intelligence."

[CosmicCowboy]

so are you advocating legislating that technology can't replace jobs?

[Th'Pusher]

The issue here is not that technological advances are displacing workers. That's been going on for decades, can't be stopped and quite frankly needs to be embraced. The issue that needs to be addressed is what to do to support the people who have been displaced.

Right now they're going onto SSI as disabled. We need to focus state resources on job training, extending unemployment benefits, etc for this affected. The safety net for people displaced by technological advances is woefully inadequate.

[boutons_deux]

so are you advocating legislating that technology can't replace jobs?

you said that, I didn't.

I remember reading a book decades ago, "Future Shock"?, where society would evolve, devolve? into a tiny wealthy, powerful group running society technocratically while the 99%? do shitty work for little pay, if they could find work at all.

The 1945 to '75 decades were decades of historic anomaly where US and other non-1% were making real increases in real income. US is regressing to the historical mean of a society controlled by wealthy, powerful, amoral, unethical if not corrupt oligarchy

[101A]

Capitalism is in a period of prolonged and arguably indefinite stagnation.

I believe this to be, to some degree, true. However, prior to capitalism was perpetual stagnation, as has been every form of socialism ever implemented. The trick is to fix capitalism (how about the government quits picking winners and losers, and focuses on leveling the playing field).

And now off topic:
For instance, a client has an employee whose dependent has Wilson's disease. Copper builds up the person's liver. It is fatal. There is a drug to remove the copper, however. It is called Syprine. It has been around since 1985, but the FDA still does not allow generics for it (picking a winner). It has always been expensive ~$1500/month. But recently, a "drug" company Valeant, bought the company that sells Syprine, and jacked the price. The cost is now $40K/month for people with insurance, and Valeant pretty much gives it away to those without. Government makes everyone buy insurance now - so Valeant is taking advantage of the situation all over the damn place, aided by our (probably bought and paid for) government. The solution is to simply allow generic equivalents of the drug to be produced (30 years is enough of a monopoly). Competition probably gets the price under $200/mo or even lower - there is nothing that exotic about the drug, after all.

Oh, and the owner of Valeant should be strung up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/business/valeants-drug-price-strategy-enriches-it-but-infuriates-patients-and-lawmakers.html?_r=0

[MultiTroll]

the "Cambrian explosion,"
Has this movie been rated yet?

[angrydude]

Any stagnation we have has nothing to do with capitalism (the private ownership of the factors of production) and everything to do with government institutionalized mass theft by banking cartels.

[boutons_deux]

ah yes, govt is ALWAYS the problem, but the capitalists (people with EXTRA capital) who corrupt govt are innocent.

"govt is ALWAYS the problem" is a HUGE LIE, VRWC propaganda to distract you stupid mofos from the corrupt, oligarchic, kleptocratic capitalists.

The govt PICKS WINNERS at a much higher rate than private capital.

The transformation of the planet by Internet? It was a US govt project, etc, etc, etc.

Capitalism is financial system designed, intended to benefit only the capitalist class, to screw everybody else out of their wealth. Works fantastically well.

[CosmicCowboy]

So Capitalism is the culprit? So China has done so much better managing the tech revolution?

[boutons_deux]

So Capitalism is the culprit? So China has done so much better managing the tech revolution?

unregulated, neoliberal capitalism IS the culprit.

Capitalists have amassed such huge capital that buying any politician is a rounding error, with a return on investment of 100x minimum.

After FDR regulated Big Finance after unregulated BigFinance crashed in 1929, 1935 - 1975 America exploded, certainly with the huge boost from Keynesian counter-cyclical govt spending in the 1930s and from govt war spending in the 1940s. Govt spending fucking SAVED America's ass.

Implement ALL of Benrie's and Liz's reforms of BigFinance, stop BigCorp and capitalists' tax avoidance and tax evasion, then America might again be For The People in a couple decades.

Hillary, Trump, Repugs won't touch BigCorp, BigFinance, 1%, so Americans will continue to be fucked as financially enslaved victims of capitalists, aka, losers in the Class War.