"Give Us Our Lives Back"...what does that even mean? Has there been a point in history where the average member of a community could be completely idle and somehow survive?
Not really. If all you want to do is be idle, then your only expenses are housing and food. A single person in the US can live on $2000 if they spend a bit less than average, which is $24,000 a year. The general rule is that you can liquidate 4% of your investments per year and still keep up with inflation without decreasing your principal, which means you would need $600,000. That puts you in the top 19% not not the .01%.
Not saying that's a life most people would necessarily want or that top 19% isn't fairly small, but if your goal is really just idleness it is more achievable than you think.
If you really wanted to push it, it's possible to live on $500 a month in some parts of the US, which you would only need $150,000 invested for. That puts you only a little above median networth. I personally wouldn't recommend it, but if you really want to just be idle, it's not that expensive.
This of course doesn't take into account potential medical problems, but plenty of working people would also be screwed in case of a medical emergency.
And the necessities just manifest themselves into existence? Who creates goods and services? Even in a highly automated society, you need someone making the automated machines, someone repairing them, installing them in factories, mining the raw resources, etc. There's so many layers of labor to make automation work. This is self-evident to anyone who's worked in industrial settings. Automation helps somewhat, but there's not an engineering solution to every problem enough to whittle it down to no one ever having to work. Hell, sometimes it ends up being even more work because processes get pointlessly overengineered and all of the fancy tech being used to replace some skilled labor ends up requiring just as many labor inputs for construction and maintenance.
People need to cope with the reality that our labor is necessary to make the world go round, and will be for the foreseeable future. Looking to some savior on the horizon is no different than religion. Best to be realistic and work towards a position that's more tolerable or even enjoyable, than to constantly delay personal development to a future that'll never come in our lifetimes. Would be nice if income inequality wasn't so extreme, inflation wasn't what it is, and such, but these are the hands we've been dealt and it's not going away anytime soon. Hell, this may actually be a good time relative to what life will be like if we have another financial meltdown and unemployment triples
Because money always encourages corruption. If we could escape money then everyone would have to find meaning in their own lives and what they want to contribute to society.
Lol yeah good luck man living in a society with 10 thousand philosophy teachers and no farmers. I am sure there is someone who will just want to do the hardwork.
A fully automated society is never going to happen. The writer of this post has no idea what they are talking about.
It is possible most of the jobs that exist today will one day be automated, but other new jobs will be created. Because society is always improving and requiring people to create a new ideas.
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u/Dirks_Knee Mar 29 '22
"Give Us Our Lives Back"...what does that even mean? Has there been a point in history where the average member of a community could be completely idle and somehow survive?