Hacker News Reader

Comment by smt88 | Hacker News Reader

It does seem that less labor is required. Automation has permanently removed large percentage of human workers from various industries (like mining).

The problem is that life is not easier because all that efficiency is captured by a tiny group of non-laborers.

The people whose labor was replaced are not benefiting from the end of their labor. They're now jobless and forced to compete harder for lower pay.

View on HN

I don't think that is strictly true. Overall life IS easier for most people, because things are also cheaper to come by. And there still seem to be jobs.

But sure, there are various ways of looking at it. As others have pointed out, with increased productivity, the value of labor could also increase.

What's cheaper nowadays?

Food, clothing, health care, TVs, computers, pretty much everything. Maybe housing is an exception, but it may also depend on where you live. At least building is probably also cheaper (more efficient methods).

Is health care really cheaper? It's obviously much better, more effective and leads to much better outcomes. However most of these medicines and procedures that gave us these better outcomes are very expensive.

I would expect the medical procedures you could get 50 years ago would be very cheap today.

But it is of course a relevant question how to measure.

I suppose you can also get a computer that is as expensive or more expensive than a computer 20 years ago. But it would also be a million times faster (or more, I am too lazy to look). You could also get a Raspberry Pie for 30$.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com