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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • Nobody is arguing that technology won’t progress. Even Marx defends that as a precondition for socialism/communism.

    The question is the following. Tomorrow a ground breaking technology is developed that makes literally everyone twice as productive. (Please let’s ignore the technical aspect of this. I’m simplifying for the sake of the argument, but this is happening at some paces everywhere).

    Now you have 3 options:

    1. Everyone can just work half the time for the same productivity. I.e. the economy can sustain itself with people just working less (which is a MAJOR quality of life increase).
    2. Everyone works the same amount of time but their salaries double.
    3. Everyone works the same amount of time. Their salaries increase a small %, perhaps keeping up with inflation, perhaps a tiny bit more than that, sometimes even not keeping up with inflation. The added productivity results in increased wealth aggregation at the top.

    Number 1 is what people are talking about in this thread.

    Number 2 won’t happen because salaries aren’t actually tied to productivity. Productivity just sets a higher limit on salary that in any case is never reached. The salaries are actually determined by competition between workers.

    Number 3. Has been happening since the seventies and will continue to happen.











  • No, I disagree. If things are really fucked (as they are) 30% of a population is more than enough to enact change. If they are really motivated to do so. Get most of those 30% only the street and you see what power it has.

    Of course with 80/90% it’s easier. Much much easier but that’s just fantasy land. You can get 90% of the population to agree on many basic facts, so you can forget about having then agree to protest together.

    Plenty of revolutions were made, and dictatorships overturned with much fewer people on board.

    I very much disagree on how much power 30% of the population has. Yes the electoral system you have in the USA is beyond stupid. However voting is only the easiest and most polite way to make change.

    Go on strike, protest, build some guillotines. If the population really wants it, change will be made, even if it’s only 15/30%. Because the remainder of that population will not opposite necessarily. They just don’t care enough to protest.

    Luigi Mangione is just 1 person for example.