Entitlements are Necessary: A Future of Wealth Without Jobs
Recently the company I work for went live on a stock exchange. A small operation, less than 2000 employees, has almost $8 billion in value. Less than 2000 employees man one of the 500 largest companies in the United States.
Amazon, as a company, is worth twice as much as Walmart yet employs a fraction of the employees. In fact, Walmart and McDonald's, the world’s two largest civilian employers combined worth is not equal to Amazon. Only the armies of the United States and China employee more people than Walmart or McDonald’s yet neither company touches Amazon in terms of value.
What’s App sold to Facebook for $19 billion dollars with only 55 employees. For all this talk about how jobs are shipping overseas the reality is that our manufacturing output is outpacing manufacturing jobs by a huge margin.
And thanks to the advances in driver less cars we will see millions of truck and taxi driving jobs disappear. It may not be necessary in the future to even own a car. Fleets of driver less cares will be available on demand. All of this murdering jobs.
I am not trying to be a Luddite, but you see where I am going with this, right? We are better at creating wealth than we are at creating jobs. This trend will continue. The writing is already on the walls: technological advancements is going to make countless jobs obsolete. Technological advancements will make capitalism obsolete.
So, I pose this question, particularly to conservatives, “How do people earn their keep when opportunities don’t exist?” Many on the right are against entitlement programs because they redistribute wealth and take away money from people who earn it. Hey, I get it, I am about that cheddar too, but how do you propose we handle a future where earning it the hard way will be virtually impossible.
Much like climate change this is a large scale existential question that can be difficult to wrap your head around. Much like climate change this is a question that if goes unanswered could have dire consequences. There are not enough jobs that a machine can’t eventually do better and cheaper to gainfully employee everyone in this country (let alone the world). With possible advances in artificial intelligence there may not be any jobs that a machine can’t eventually do better and cheaper. It is scary, but it is irrefutable.
And I write all this to implore my friends on the right side of the political spectrum to genuinely take a look at their stance on social programs. Healthcare, basic income, nutrition programs, housing programs, and a like are very important now, but they will become essential in the future. Maybe we shouldn’t kick the can down the road? Maybe we should have robust social programs in place so that as the economy changes we can be prepared and minimize suffering? We are the wealthiest most advanced economy in the world and if that continues we will be hit by these problems first. Maybe we should lead the way in all areas, you know? Redistributing wealth will be a requirement for survival in the future. What do you say to figuring all that out now?
