Figured this needed its own thread; tech oligarchy

[Totem Polar]

Another fascinating read:

https://quillette.com/2019/06/19/wha...EmKi1TqvSEBnfg



"an increasingly greater share of economic wealth will be generated by a smaller slice of very talented or original people. Everyone else will increasingly subsist on some combination of part-time entrepreneurial ‘gig work’ and government aid.” Such part-time work has been growing rapidly, accounting for roughly 20 percent of the workforce in the US and Europe, and is expected to grow substantially, adds McKinsey.

The former head of Uber, Travis Kalanick, was a strong supporter of Obamacare, and many top tech executives—including Mark Zuckerberg, Y combinator founder Sam Altman, and Elon Musk—favor a guaranteed annual wage to help, in part, allay fears about the “disruption” on a potentially exposed workforce.

Their social vision amounts to what could be called oligarchal socialism, or what the Corbynite Left calls ’fully automated luxury communism.’”

And

"California, and particularly the Bay Area, already reflects this neo-feudal reality. Adjusted for costs, my adopted home state suffers the overall highest poverty rate in the country, according to the US Census Bureau. Fully one in three welfare recipients in the nation live in California, which is home to barely 12 percent of the country’s population, while a 2017 United Way study showed that close to one in three of the state’s families are barely able to pay their bills. Today, eight million Californians live in poverty, including two million children. Roughly one in five California children lives in deep poverty and nearly half subsist barely above that."

[RevolverRob]

California, highest income disparity, receiving 1/3rd of Federal welfare benefits. And two Bay Area counties are home to 76,000 millionaires and billionaires, alone.

Give them what they want. More taxes.

ETA: How do we (as individuals) escape the inevitable dystopian future? I think we move away from the technocratic societies to the fringe and live lives of increasing tech independence and self sufficiency. This may, in fact, change my whole perspective on where and what kind of jobs to apply to.

[Joe in PNG]

It's possible that privacy and health concerns will drive a backlash against the ever-present tech zombie culture.

[spinmove_]

And people wonder why I yearn to leave IT and abandon my smartphone...


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[Maple Syrup Actual]

I suspect that the true reason a lot of the California elite continue to support unrestricted mass immigration is that it gives them a desperate labour pool from which to hire staff, not for their companies, but for their personal requirements.

If not for a steady influx of desperate people, I think the free market would ultimately correct a lot of this, because I can tell you exactly how much I would charge to wire up a tech billionaire's house in San Francisco and the cost of paying me to be there would be factored in to my price. And people like that will always need people like me, who don't work in their industry but do something they can't or don't want to go without. What SF needs to see are plumbers and carpenters charging $3000/day.

The tech industry probably will go on as ultra-rich overlords of gig serfs...but people outside that industry wouldn't really have to worry about it if there weren't an ongoing influx of people who will work for enough to get them through the day plus a few bucks to send home. I think that's the real resolution to all this: stop allowing local labour markets to get circumvented by importing third world labour.

[OlongJohnson]

I suspect that the true reason a lot of the California elite continue to support unrestricted mass immigration is that it gives them a desperate labour pool from which to hire staff, not for their companies, but for their personal requirements.

If not for a steady influx of desperate people, I think the free market would ultimately correct a lot of this, because I can tell you exactly how much I would charge to wire up a tech billionaire's house in San Francisco and the cost of paying me to be there would be factored in to my price. And people like that will always need people like me, who don't work in their industry but do something they can't or don't want to go without. What SF needs to see are plumbers and carpenters charging $3000/day.

The tech industry probably will go on as ultra-rich overlords of gig serfs...but people outside that industry wouldn't really have to worry about it if there weren't an ongoing influx of people who will work for enough to get them through the day plus a few bucks to send home. I think that's the real resolution to all this: stop allowing local labour markets to get circumvented by importing third world labour.

It works for Republicans, too. Which is why the situation is what it is. Nobody who can actually change it actually wants to. Bread and circuses for the rest of us.

[BehindBlueI's]

Interesting book on the topic for those interested: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C1N5WOI...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

Renowned economist...Tyler Cowen brings a groundbreaking analysis of capitalism, the job market, and the growing gap between the one percent and minimum wage workers... The United States continues to mint more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever. Yet, since the great recession, three quarters of the jobs created here pay only marginally more than minimum wage. Why is there growth only at the top and the bottom?

...Tyler Cowen explains that high earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, nearly every business sector relies less and less on manual labor, and that means a steady, secure life somewhere in the middle—average—is over.

[whomever]

"every business sector relies less and less on manual labor"

Just look at a picture of a WWII factory - rows of manual lathes stretching into the distance. Every one of those needed a reasonably skilled operator.

Today that would be replaced with a row of CNC machines, with fewer people over all, and the people running those are likely a high/low mix of skills.

Even tech is that way. When I started programming in the 70's/80's lots of companies had written inhouse systems for general ledger, payroll, etc, as well as for whatever their core business was. Today general ledger/payroll/etc are outsourced or purchased as packages, and the programmers who supported them are doing something else.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

This is one of the reasons I have always favoured work which requires a combination of intellectual, personal, and manual skills.

I can't really be outsourced to India. I could be replaced by a contractor...but most of the people I have worked with that have left have gone to work for contractors, making as much or more money.

If you do something where you work exclusively with one branch of human ability I think you're easier to replace, whether it be with a machine, an algorithm, or a remote worker, or whatever.

[Trigger]

I would also add, that in my kids lifetime, they are probably going to have to reinvent themselves and their careers three or four times at a minimum. The workplace is going to dynamically evolve, and people will be paid well if they provide unique work skills and services. You can’t count on a good factory job forever. Nor a good office job. You need to be an entrepreneur for your own career evolution.

A combination of a strong work ethic, added to leadership, teamwork and problem-solving skills will always be commodities with market and employer value.