| ▲ | rubyfan 2 days ago |
| Is it me or does this seem like naked corruption at its worst? These tech CEOs hang out at the White House and donate to superfluous causes and suddenly the executive is protecting their interests. This does nothing to protect working US citizens from AI alien (agents) coming to take their jobs and displace their incomes. |
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| ▲ | oceanplexian 2 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| > This does nothing to protect working US citizens from AI alien (agents) coming to take their jobs and displace their incomes. Where did you get the idea that banning new technology that could eliminate jobs is even remotely an American value? Going back to the Industrial Revolution the United States has been 100% gas pedal all the time on innovation and disruption, which has in turn created millions of jobs that didn't exist before and led to the US running the world's largest economy. |
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| ▲ | rubyfan 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | We regulate medicine, nuclear technology, television, movies, monopolies, energy, financial services, etc. because these things can be harmful if left solely to the market. Americans value honest work, dignity, prosperity and equal opportunity. Innovation is useful in so far as it enables our values - regulation is not counter to Americans interests, it protects them. | | |
| ▲ | XenophileJKO 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I feel like anyone making this argument hasn't studied how those regulations happened. They ALL happened AFTER people got hurt. That's how we do things here. We always have. It's kind of messed up, but the alternative is a bunch of rules on things that wouldn't be a real problem. | | | |
| ▲ | andsoitis 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > We regulate medicine, nuclear technology, television, movies, monopolies, energy, financial services, etc. Many of those regulations at the federal level, yes? | | |
| ▲ | alterom 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | >Many of those regulations at the federal level, yes? In addition to ones at state level, yes. | |
| ▲ | windexh8er 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Sure. And this is not that. This says: before we begin to think about our policy let's make sure to remove any barriers for Mr. Altman and friends so that they don't get sucked down with their Oracle branded boat anchor. If this had any whiff of actually shedding light on these needed regulations the root OP wouldn't have said what they did. But for now I'm going to head over to Polymarket and see if there are any bets I can place on Trump's kids being appointed to the OpenAI board. | |
| ▲ | eggsandbeer 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | [dead] |
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| ▲ | Dumblydorr 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Not true that US is 100% gas pedal constantly on innovation. You’re forgetting labor reform movements and the service switch away from industry in the last few decades. Also the de-science-ing of the current admin has vastly reduced our innovative capacity, as well as the virtual decapitation of brain drain. Those next generation of brightest immigrants certainly aren’t coming here to deal with ICE, and that’s been the source of half the great minds in our country throughout its history, gone because of racism. | | |
| ▲ | mnky9800n 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I kind of doubt American scientists will leave en masse to go elsewhere. Their options are only Europe, the UK, or China. Most will not be willing to give up the salaries or the resources available to scientists in the USA, even with the current administration, to go live in strongly hierarchical academic systems that they don’t know how to navigate. Especially not for a 30% salary reduction (or more if they go someplace like France or Italy). | | |
| ▲ | dc396 a day ago | parent | next [-] | | Reread what the previous poster said. They were talking about folks coming to the US. Around 50% of doctorate level scientists and graduate students in STEM come from outside the US. | |
| ▲ | x3ord a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Canada? Australia? 30% (or more) salary cut certainly applies but academic systems are similar and resources are in the same ballpark at top research universities. | |
| ▲ | idiotsecant 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | They don't have to go anywhere if they just don't come here. American science works on the back of underpaid foreign born graduate students. If they aren't there, neither is American science. It's already started. And that's not even considering the other 'reforms' currently deliberately crushing academia. The first thing a new fascist regime needs to crush is the immigrants, and the second is academia. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/graduate-studen... |
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| ▲ | milowata 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The case against this EO is not “banning new technology”. It’s not allowing the federal government to ban any state regulation. And states having the power to make their own rules is maybe the most American value. | | | |
| ▲ | SubiculumCode a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | What ISNT an American value is Executive Orders trying to trump State powers without actual legislation. | |
| ▲ | kibwen a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Going back to the Industrial Revolution the United States has been 100% gas pedal all the time on innovation and disruption Until that "innovation and disruption" threatens any established player, at which point they run crying to the government to grease some palms. China is innovating and disrupting the entire energy sector via renewables and battery storage while the US is cowering in the corner trying to flaccidly resuscitate the corpse of the coal industry. | |
| ▲ | drivingmenuts 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Maybe it should be. The system here in the US has produced some great innovations at the cost of great misery among the non-wealthy. At a time when technology promises an easier life, it only seems to benefit the wealthy, while trying to discard everyone else. The light at the end of the tunnel is a 1%-er about to laughingly crush you beneath their wheels. | | |
| ▲ | noduerme 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I don't think this is the strongest argument. Every technological revolution so far has initially benefited the wealthy and taken a generation or two for its effects to lift the masses out of previous levels of poverty, but ultimately each one has. To me the stronger argument about AI is that this revolution won't. And that's because this one is not really about productivity or even about capital investment in things that people nominally would want (faster transport, cheaper cotton, home computers). This one is about ending revolution once and for all; it's not about increeasing the wealth of the wealthy, it's about being the first to arrive at AGI and thus cementing that wealth disparity for all perpetuity. It's the endgame. I don't know if that's true, but that's to me the argument as to why this one is exceptional and why the capitalist argument for American prosperity is inapplicable in this case. | | |
| ▲ | dylan604 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I don't know about for all perpetuity. If history has shown, anyone that reaches the pinnacle eventually becomes complacent, technology improves by becoming faster/cheaper/smaller. That just means it is prime to always be susceptible to a new something coming along that stands on the shoulders of what came before without having to pay for it. They start where the current leader fought to achieve. | | |
| ▲ | Arodex 2 days ago | parent [-] | | The idea behind self improving AGI is that it will "get" every "new something coming along" before everyone else. | | |
| ▲ | mrwrong 10 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I personally believe magical unicorns are going to save us | |
| ▲ | Nasrudith a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | Self-improving AI is a rhetorical sleight of hand to make you think that. Just because it can self improve doesn't mean it improves better than everything else or without substantial costs to develop improvement. |
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| ▲ | tehjoker a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | We have had the capacity to have zero poverty for many decades, maybe over a century. China eliminated extreme poverty. |
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| ▲ | hcurtiss 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | I don’t know about that. The poor from just about every other country in the world seem desperate to live in America. While American capitalism has many faults, oppressing the bottom quintile is not one of them. The US median income is consistently top ten globally. | | |
| ▲ | reeredfdfdf 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Median income doesn't tell much if you don't factor in the cost of living. My salary sucks compared to what I would earn in America, but when I factor in things like free healthcare, daycare and higher level education, I'm better off here. | | |
| ▲ | petcat a day ago | parent [-] | | What countries offer free daycare? I know there are a few in Europe. It's not super common, so I'm curious to know where | | |
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| ▲ | Arodex 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | >The poor from just about every other country in the world seem desperate to live in America Immigration to the USA, both illegal and legal, has cratered. | |
| ▲ | Gud 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | This is completely wrong. Even “the poor” in most parts of the world has a pretty good life weight where they are. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w&pp=ygUMSGFucyByb3N... |
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| ▲ | devmor 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Going back to the Industrial Revolution the United States has been 100% gas pedal all the time on innovation and disruption, which has in turn created millions of jobs that didn't exist before and led to the US running the world's largest economy. Where did you get the idea that this was the cause that created millions of jobs and lead to the US running the world's largest economy, and not say - the knock-on effects of the US joining WW2 relatively late and unscathed, making it the only major world power left with a functioning enough industrial complex to export to war-ravaged Europe? | | |
| ▲ | ch_sm 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I see your point, but that is definitely not the only cause of American economic dominance. The U.S. has been the largest economy by GDP since ca 1900 – i.e. before the wars. | |
| ▲ | mnky9800n 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | There is more to history than ww2. | | |
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| ▲ | slg 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The patent system. I know someone will respond detailing why the patent system is pro-business, but it is objectively government regulation that puts restrictions on new technology, so it's proof that regulation of that sort is at least an American tradition if not fully an "American value". | | |
| ▲ | johnebgd 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Patents and trademarks are the only ways to create legal monopolies. They are/were intended to reward innovation but despite good intentions are abused. | | |
| ▲ | lucas_membrane 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Not exactly. For example, Major League Baseball has been granted an anti-trust exemption by the US Supreme Court, because they said it was not a business. In some cases in which firms have been found guilty of violating the anti-trust laws, they were fined amounts minuscule in relation to the profits they gained by operating the monopoly. Various governments in the US outsource public services to private monopolies, and the results have sometimes amounted to a serious restraint of trade. The chicanery goes back a long way. For the first decade or so after the passage of the Sherman Act, it was not used against the corporate monopolies that it was written to limit; it was invoked only against labor unions trying to find a way to get a better deal out of the firms operating company stores and company towns etc, etc.
Then Teddy Roosevelt, the so-called trust-buster, invoked it under the assumption that he could tell the difference between good and bad monopolies and that he had the power to leave the good monopolies alone. 120 years later, we are in the same sorry situation. | |
| ▲ | SequoiaHope 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Intellectual property restrictions cause harm even when used as intended. They are an extreme rest restriction on market activity and I believe they cause more harm than good. | |
| ▲ | bit1993 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Patents, trademarks, copyright, deeds and other similar concepts are part of what makes capitalism what it is, without them capitalism will not work because they are the mechanisms that enforce private property. | | |
| ▲ | idiotsecant 14 hours ago | parent [-] | | Good luck with that. When 3/4 of the world laughs at your patent what is the point of patents? IP only works when everyone agrees to it. When they don't it's just a handicap on the ones who do that benefits nobody. |
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| ▲ | 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
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| ▲ | ajross a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Going back to the Industrial Revolution the United States has been 100% gas pedal all the time on innovation and disruption Arguably true, but it's also been way ahead of the pack (people tend to forget this) on protection for organized labor, social safety net entitlements, and regulation of harmful industrial safety and environmental externalities. This statement is awfully one-sided. | | |
| ▲ | idiotsecant 14 hours ago | parent [-] | | I am not sure you can call it being 'ahead of the pack' when we are currently furiously disassembling those forward thinking ideas. |
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| ▲ | rudedogg 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Where did you get the idea that banning new technology that could eliminate jobs is even remotely an American value? Copyright law is another counter-example to your argument. But somehow? that’s no longer a concern if you have enough money. I guess the trick is to steal from literally everyone so that no one entity can claim any measurable portion of the output as damages. I’ve always thought Copyright should be way shorter than it is, but it’s suspect that we’re having a coming to Jesus moment about IP with all the AI grifting going on. | | |
| ▲ | zdragnar 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Copyright has nothing to do with banning technology. It is a set of rules around a particular kind of property rights. There are things you can do with technology that are banned as a result of copyright protections, but the underlying technologies are not banned, only the particular use of them is. | | |
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| ▲ | grafmax 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The question isn’t the jobs created but how have workers benefited from increased productivity? They haven’t materially since late 1970s. That’s when the American labor movement began its decline. Innovation isn’t what helps workers. The gains from innovation have to be wrenched from the hands of the ruling class through organized resistance. | |
| ▲ | cyanydeez a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [flagged] | |
| ▲ | __MatrixMan__ 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | I think your take is historically accurate. Although one does wonder how long we'll be able to get away with keeping the pedal to the metal. It might be worth taking a moment to install a steering wheel. Rumor has it there are hazards about. |
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| ▲ | whynotmaybe 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| That's lobbying simplified, no need to pay lobbyist. |
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| ▲ | rchaud 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | This is a tribute system, way past lobbying. Lobbying is cheap, Senators can be bought off for 5-figure sums. CEOs pay lobbyists so they don't have to meet with them personally. What's happening now involves CEOs appearing at political events and lobbying the president personally, to the tune of millions of dollars in declared "donations" for "ballroom construction", in exchange for security guarantees for their business empires. | |
| ▲ | jfengel 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Lobbying is tightly regulated, and the FEC really does keep a close eye. This is just flat out bribery, using the thinnest of legal fig leaves. Which would not possibly pass muster if he hadn't also packed the court with supporters. | | |
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| ▲ | conartist6 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I'm in agreement because what is there to say about AI policy? This govt clearly isn't going to regulate against harms like perpetuating systems of racism. This government adores to perpetuate systems of racism. So fuck it. Let's race to the bottom like the companies want to so badly. |
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| ▲ | SilverElfin 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It is definitely naked corruption. Lobbying was always around, but I would say that with this administration things are a lot more transactional and a lot more in the open. Companies like Palantir and Anduril and others are being gifted contracts all over the place - that’s money we taxpayers are losing. |
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| ▲ | A_D_E_P_T 2 days ago | parent [-] | | > Companies like . . . Anduril are being gifted contracts all over the place - that’s money we taxpayers are losing. Can you point to a concrete example of this? | | |
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| ▲ | seanhunter a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You don’t seem to appreciate: they paid for the ballroom. They have a right to set policy. That’s how an oligarchy works |
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| ▲ | testing22321 a day ago | parent [-] | | That’s how campaign contributions have worked for a long time. Now it’s just a touch more blatant. The rest of the world has always called it corruption. |
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| ▲ | AndrewKemendo 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > protect working US citizens from AI alien (agents) coming to take their jobs and displace their incomes So where is this coalition that’s organized to actually make this real? Software engineers are allergic to unionization (despite the recent id win) and 100% of capital owners (this is NOT business owner and operators I’m talking about LPs and Fund Managers) are in support of labor automation as a priority, the same people also run every government and overwhelmingly select the politicians available to vote for, so who will fund and lead your advocacy? |
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| ▲ | soulofmischief 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Game developers are subject to much more abuse than the average software engineering job, for less pay. It's a different environment. I'm open to the idea of guilds, but personally I do not want others negotiating for me with the type of work I do, I'd prefer it to be a contract between me, my employer and nothing else. Unions aren't always a net benefit for every industry. Of course, with AI going the way it is, collective bargaining might become more attractive in our field. But institutions can be slow to catch up and not everyone always agrees with the outcome. Personally, if I worked in Hollywood, I'd be upset about the kind of anti-AI scaremongering and regulation taking place in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. |
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| ▲ | IAmGraydon 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Is it you? I mean, the guy started his term by launching a scam coin along with his wife. He hates the United States and sees it as just something to exploit for financial gain and power. That's it. That's literally all there is to all of his actions. |
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| ▲ | N_Lens 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Par for the course with this administration. |
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| ▲ | viccis 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Just another step towards Russian style naked oligarchy. |
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| ▲ | outside1234 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You aren't missing anything. This is oligarchic capture of the government. |
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| ▲ | bparsons 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| For this brief moment in time, crime is legal. |
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| ▲ | soulofmischief 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | The US was founded on crime. We are a colonial imperial country with a penchant for using racism and religion in order to maintain a certain lifestyle for white supremacists. Slavery was really not that long ago, we are still actively invading countries and murdering people for oil, and we help bankroll straight up genocide in regions such as Darfur and Palestine. This is business as usual. | | |
| ▲ | lowmagnet a day ago | parent [-] | | We still do slavery and it's even kept in the 13th amendment as a punishment. |
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| ▲ | SXX 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Whats wrong if US population has voted for this? There was no surprises this time - everyone can expect what is going to happen. | | |
| ▲ | wood_spirit 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Didn’t the majority of people vote to “drain the swamp” and “bring down the cost of living”? | | |
| ▲ | krapp a day ago | parent [-] | | People had nearly a decade of experience with Donald Trump as a known political entity and decades of receipts and lawsuits prior to 2016 to speak to his amoral and corrupt nature. If they didn't know exactly what they were buying into they were idiots. He isn't exactly a master manipulator. Also, The first time Trump was elected, the majority of voters went for Hillary Clinton. Second time, it was still 49% versus 48% for Kamala Harris. The majority of Americans have never voted for Donald Trump nor ever supported him. |
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| ▲ | soulofmischief a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | I actually don't want to suffer just because my neighbor is racist. | | |
| ▲ | SXX a day ago | parent [-] | | I'm not saying I support either. I am just looking at US politics from outside. But this is how your democracy system works. | | |
| ▲ | soulofmischief 21 hours ago | parent [-] | | You asked, "Whats wrong if US population has voted for this?" in response to someone complaining that the system is not working, and so I explained it: the rest of us are not represented. I'm unsure what point you're getting at. | | |
| ▲ | SXX 18 hours ago | parent [-] | | My point is: presidents are not delivered to your country by president delivery alien space ship. A lot of people voted for him and this is a fact. You cant just blame everyone of them for being dumb or racist. If you dont like their choice that means you should starting to do something about it. Authorithorianism also not just happen - it take years to build and destroy institutions. It took 20 years to build fascist regime in my country. Sorry for not making it clear enough. |
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| ▲ | carabiner 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This is the most pro-tech admin in decades, and that terrifies me. |
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| ▲ | mahirsaid 2 days ago | parent [-] | | did you not see who was standing next to him. All of the top tech bros of silicon valley in their search for the fountain of youth. |
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| ▲ | reactordev 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
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| ▲ | ETH_start 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
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| ▲ | reactordev 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | >which translates to higher wages for U.S.-based workers. In what world do you live in and are you taking refugees? This is not at all how this works. First people to see higher monies are the shareholders and only the shareholders. | |
| ▲ | hvb2 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Higher productivity is also why jobs pay so much more in the U.S. than the E.U. You mean the top tier jobs or the bottom 90%? They pay so much more because the US is very ok with big income inequality. Those unions represent a much bigger share of the population, so shouldn't they have more away in a democratic system (where demos is people) | | |
| ▲ | ETH_start 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Median income and the purchasing power of disposable income are substantially higher in the U.S. The public sector unions do represent a much larger share of the population than the CEOs but in absolute terms public sector workers constitute a very small share of the population, while receiving a large share of public spending. Given they are being rewarded with huge amounts of tax dollars from the party they help keep/put in power, the concern that there's a systemic pay-to-play dynamic at work is very justified. | | |
| ▲ | hvb2 2 days ago | parent [-] | | > but in absolute terms public sector workers constitute a very small share of the population, while receiving a large share of public spending Uh... Just no? Public spending? That's défense, health care, entitlements etcetera etcetera I'll actually back it up with some numbers too: > That’s 1% of gross domestic product, and almost 5% of total federal spending. The government payroll for other developed countries is typically 5% of GDP, Kettl said. From: https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/03/06/federal-workers... And this > Median income and the purchasing power of disposable income are substantially higher in the U.S. Not sure what you're basing that on but there's this too
> The statistic is used to show how unequal things have become in the U.S.: Some 40% of Americans would struggle to come up with even $400 to pay for an unexpected bill From: https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2021/what-a-400-dolla... So unless they're all spending money irrationally, they have no money to save meaning little or no disposable income | | |
| ▲ | IanCal 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Disposable income is essentially just income after tax. It’s the amount you have where you get to direct where it goes / how you dispose of it. It’s not money after essentials. There are many ways to slice it but the US median income is high. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c... | | |
| ▲ | hvb2 a day ago | parent [-] | | TIL, I've always thought it was minus housing etc. Apparently that's discretionary income. |
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| ▲ | ETH_start 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | If we use BEA/FRED "compensation of employees" (wages + benefits), the payroll picture is: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A4076C0A144NBEA All US government employees (federal + state + local): $2.409T in 2023. US nominal GDP in 2023: $27.812T. So government compensation = ~8.7% of GDP (2.409 / 27.812). Breakdown (2023): Federal government compensation: $634.9B (~2.3% of GDP). State + local compensation: $1.7846T (~6.4% of GDP). State/local education: $863.1B State/local other: $783.2B For cross-country median disposable income comparisons, OECD has a direct chart: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/society-at-a-glance-202... Your $400 stat is about liquidity and balance-sheet fragility; it doesn't tell you the cross-country level of median PPP-adjusted disposable income. OECD Figure 4.1 is the relevant comparison. Generally, countries with more government social spending have lower savings rates, because people irresponsibly rely on the taxpayer as their backstop, so I'm not surprised at all. The U.S. actually has very high levels of social spending, despite the stereotype of it being a very free-market-oriented economy. That leads to those who qualify for many social programs, i.e. low-income earners, to put aside a relatively small portion of their income for savings. | | |
| ▲ | hvb2 a day ago | parent [-] | | Since you took the data for federal and state and local, you end up with 22.51 million employees[1]. Out of a total number of employed people of ~160M that's 1 in 8 employees. If you're calling 1 in 8 'a small share' the we just disagree there. As to the $400 statistic, let me just point out that this > That leads to those who qualify for many social programs, i.e. low-income earners, to put aside a relatively small portion of their income for savings. Is very much an opinion, not a fact. Maybe there's also that for the low income earners there isn't any money left after paying for housing, food and such. And I'm not even talking about health insurance. [1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/204535/number-of-governm... |
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| ▲ | rubyfan 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > AI agents being able to do jobs means more income for U.S.-based companies, which translates to higher wages for U.S.-based workers. Um, no. Higher productivity translates to greater return on equity for those that hold it, not necessarily workers. |
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| ▲ | cyanydeez a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
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| ▲ | Alex2037 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
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| ▲ | TrainedMonkey 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | > we need a hyper-productive world where someone working a few hours a year generates enough wealth to secure a comfortable lifestyle up there with the best of them. This is naive, productivity increases had decoupled from compensation a long time ago. See https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ for example. AI certainly can create wealth, and in fact already did (hey NVDA), but somehow that did not trickle down. I think more likely than not, AI will further stratify our society. | | |
| ▲ | IncreasePosts 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | But humans aren't more productive for the most part. What had made people more productive is, for the most part, mechanization, computerization, and other tech tree improvements. Even though everyone didn't get rich from the industrial revolution, ultimately people led easier lives, more stuff, and less work. | | |
| ▲ | N_Lens 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I read that a peasant in the middle ages typically worked less and had much more leisure than a worker in the 21st century. | | |
| ▲ | andsoitis 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Peasants in the Middle Ages did hard, agrarian labor, had poor sanitation, high child mortality, and limited horizons. While nobles had wealth and comfort, the era was generally harsh, with most lacking modern amenities and facing short, physically demanding lives. | |
| ▲ | empiko 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | You can achieve medieval peasent level of life quality by not working at all these days. | |
| ▲ | parineum 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | You've read that they had more days off but that's only because they couldn't work in the winter. Instead, they hoped the food stores would last and the kids wouldn't die so they could help work the land next year. |
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| ▲ | oceanplexian 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Why then, outside of Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the UAE (All of which are tiny countries, and at least two of them are Petrostates), does the United States have the world's highest median income with a population of over 342 million people? The typical American is insanely wealthy by global standards. | | |
| ▲ | abright 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Sure, the USA is in the top five in terms of median income. They are also tied for first for having the highest cost of living. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cost-of-l... | | |
| ▲ | chroma205 2 days ago | parent [-] | | > They are also tied for first for having the highest cost of living. Who cares? Absolute savings rate and net worth are what matter. Any European will gladly live in America for US$1 million/year income even if the cost of living is US$300k/year. | | |
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| ▲ | N_Lens 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Wealth inequality is worse now than the era of robber barons & gilded age. | | |
| ▲ | hcurtiss 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Who cares? If higher wealth inequality produces a higher standard of living for the majority (note, median not mean), I’m all for it. Policy should not be driven by envy. | | |
| ▲ | Libidinalecon 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | You should care because people vote and the social consequences are going to be devastating. It is easy for me to take this perspective too because I never had much student debt or children. The median though is getting crushed if they went to college and are paying for daycare. If you are getting crushed for going to school and having children that is a pretty clear breakdown of the social contract. The consequences are obvious. People are going to vote in socialist policies and the whole engine is going to get thrown in reverse. The "let them eat cake" strategy is never the smart strategy. It is not obvious at all our system is even compatible with the internet. If the starting conditions are 1999, it would seem like the system is imploding. It is easy to pretend like everything is working out economically when we borrowed 30 trillion dollars during that time from the future. | | |
| ▲ | roenxi a day ago | parent [-] | | > The median though is getting crushed if they went to college and are paying for daycare. > If you are getting crushed for going to school and having children that is a pretty clear breakdown of the social contract. That isn't a factor in wealth inequality. Inequality is how much money they have relative to people like Musk and Bezos - or just local business owners. The poor side of that comparison always has such little wealth/income that their circumstances don't really matter. Someone poor will be sitting in the +-$100k band and not be particularly creditworthy. When compared to a millionaire the gap is still going to be about a million dollars whether they're on the crushed or non-crushed side of the band. Part of the reason the economic situation gets so bad is because people keep trying to shift the conversation to inequality instead of talking about what actually matters - living standards and opportunities. And convincing people to value accumulating capital, we're been playing this game for centuries, inter-generational savings could have had a real impact if people focused on being effective about it. |
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| ▲ | forgetfreeman 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | It isn't, so now what? |
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| ▲ | jandrewrogers 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | In the gilded age people were worth a larger fraction of the entire country’s GDP than today. Rockefeller alone was something like 2% of GDP. | |
| ▲ | ETH_start 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | The 1870-1900 period experienced the greatest expansion of U.S. industry, and the fastest rise in both U.S. wages and U.S. life expectancy, in history. |
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| ▲ | noitpmeder 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | But it's not like AI did any of that... | | |
| ▲ | grafmax 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Right we had a functioning labor movement to thank for productivity gains being distributed to the working class. When that got undermined beginning late seventies early 80s with offshoring we see wealth just flowing to the top without significantly benefiting the working class. | |
| ▲ | creato 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Past innovation did though. |
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| ▲ | forgetfreeman 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Insanely wealthy when your comparison includes tin pot dictatorships, theocracies, and ex-soviet countries that still haven't gotten their shit together. Weird how that unimaginable wealth doesn't translate into financial security, access to high quality healthcare, or the ability to own a home. |
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| ▲ | andsoitis 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > for example. AI certainly can create wealth, and in fact already did (hey NVDA), but somehow that did not trickle down. The millions of people who use NVDA’s products do not get value from it? Isn’t it making their lives richer? | | |
| ▲ | 331c8c71 2 days ago | parent [-] | | If your employer gets you a nvda card or openai subscription, it doesn't automatically mean you are getting richer, agreed? And the richness of life it's another philosophical discussion altogether... |
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| ▲ | ETH_start 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | When statistical artifacts are controlled for, it shows that there's been almost no gap between productivity and compensation growth: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/sources-of-real-wage-stag... The EPI is also not a credible source, given who funds it. | |
| ▲ | roenxi 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | I don't know why you think that graph is contradicting me, if wages and productivity aren't linked having people do make-work is even more stupid! They're already doing work that they aren't even being compensated for, fighting to preserve that when the work doesn't need to be done is legitimately crazy. It'd be fighting for the right to do work that isn't being compensated for and isn't useful. One of the rare situations that is even worse than just straight paying people to not do anything. I'm seeing a scenario where we have such high individual productivity that everyone can live a very comfortable life. If in practice the way it is working is a couple of people do all the work and the benefits are divvied up among everyone else then that hardly undermines the vision. Although if we're talking the optimum way of organising society, y'know, re-linking wages and productivity is a probably a good path. This scheme of not rewarding productive people has seen the US make a transition from growth hub of the world to being out-competed by nominal Communists. They aren't exactly distinguishing themselves with that strategy. |
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| ▲ | rubyfan 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I’m not an expert but my understanding is a slow migration from agriculture oriented jobs to industrial to information jobs. Yes we all have more cheap junk but also economic disparity and a hollowing out of the middle class. That will get worse faster than new types of jobs can be created. Will the new jobs even replace the same levels of income? It seems impossible. | |
| ▲ | hvb2 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > We aren't going to make the next big leap in lifestyles without doing the same thing to a lot more jobs. Which planet is going to sustain that? More productivity doesn't add any resources to sustain your lifecycle. | |
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