One of the most robust findings in labor economics is that in the long run capital and labor are complements, not substitutes. What this means is that over time, as capital productivity has increased, demand for both capital and labor has increased, rather than demand for labor falling while demand for capital increased. I'm skeptical that AI will be different than all of the previous inventions of the industrial era in this regard.

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efaref 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't believe demand for labour has increased. We used to force children as young as 6 to enter the labour force, and people used to work 6.5 days per week. Demand for labour has been in free fall since the 1970, evidenced by stagnant wages in most of the developed world. Furthermore capital is accumulating at the top as the capital owners use their position to extract it from the people below them. AI will only accelerate this. We are in for some interesting times for sure.

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pixl97 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Every horse said the same thing when cars were invented.

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malicka 16 hours ago | parent [-]

I reckon humans are a _tad_ bit more flexible than horses.

	▲	pixl97 16 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not near as much as you'd like to believe. It takes years for us to grow up, get an education and become useful. Changing what we do can be quite difficult, especially with the time and monetary costs of doing so. Plus inroads by technology can wipe jobs quickly even if they'll eventually be replaced. When you have a bunch of people scared that they'll starve tomorrow society will fall apart (even more than it has). The rise to authoritarianism will lead to rather bad outcomes in the medium term.