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Has the decline of knowledge work begun?

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388 points pseudolus | 2 comments | 25 Mar 25 17:02 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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hgs3 ◴[27 Mar 25 16:53 UTC] No.43495502[source]▶
The vast majority of jobs that sustain our standard of living are blue-collar: farmers who grow our food, textile workers who make our clothes, construction workers who build our homes, plumbers, electricians, waste disposal workers, etc. I'd say it's white-collar work that became overinflated this past century, largely as a reaction to the automation and outsourcing of many traditional blue-collar roles.

Now, with white-collar jobs themselves increasingly at risk, it's unclear where people will turn. The economic pie continues to shrink, and I don't see that trend reversing.

It appears to me that our socio-economic model simply doesn't scale with technology. We need to have a constructive conversation about how to adapt.

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rthomas6 ◴[27 Mar 25 17:07 UTC] No.43495639[source]▶
The way I see it you only have two real choices:

1. Raise wages to match global increased productivity

2. Democratize ownership

That's it.

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mentalgear ◴[27 Mar 25 17:18 UTC] No.43495728[source]▶
Democratize ownership it is.

Imagine an early human group of 40 people. If one person hoarded the food of 37 others and employed the remaining two just to guard it, it wasn't long before the ruse was up and there was a revolt and the food reclaimed.

Now, only because of scale and abstraction, basically the same setup is possible (0.1% owns as much as 50% of the population).

Our time is perverted ownership-wise, and it's time to go back to a truly cooperative society.

Cooperation, not hoarding, was the foundation of the beginning of civilisation.

---

My ideal future resembles Star Trek: a world where money is obsolete (at least on Earth), and people pursue exploration, science, and the arts purely out of passion and curiosity.

A society driven by innovation, not profit.

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1. phkahler ◴[27 Mar 25 18:02 UTC] No.43496193[source]▶
>> My ideal future resembles Star Trek: a world where money is obsolete (at least on Earth), and people pursue exploration, science, and the arts purely out of passion and curiosity.

The problem with the Star Trek fantasy is that it's a lie even within the show. There are still people with obligations. There are still treaties and trade. There is still a hierarchy where some people have more important jobs and report to others. The only thing that seems different is that no money changes hands.

If we actually automated everything so no one had to work, there would still be a gradual progression and a time when some people have to work while most don't. I'm not sure how you get through that phase, not to mention what it looks like on the other side.

One thing I think should be considered is not so much how to pay everyone "enough" but how to reduce cost of living so more people can work less, or eventually not at all (somehow without owning everything and amassing control).

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2. HPsquared ◴[27 Mar 25 19:23 UTC] No.43497104[source]▶
We already live in a world where only a small number of people ACTUALLY need to work. Most of humanity's expenses are attributable to lifestyle creep. If we could be happy with a 16th century peasant standard of living delivered by a small number of people using modern tech, only a tiny percentage of the available manpower would be required. Lifestyle creep eats all gains in productivity. Work also expands to fill the available time.