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André Gorz predicted the revolt against meaningless work (2023)

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100 points robtherobber | 3 comments | 16 Oct 25 15:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.637s | source
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samaltmanfried ◴[23 Oct 25 00:12 UTC] No.45676748[source]▶
Some people's jobs might be 'meaningless', but we're on the verge of lots of people's jobs being outright 'useless'. Anyone who's worked in a large corporation knows how small some people's useful output is already.

I've been wondering whether increased automation is going to cause some kind of employment crisis in western countries. It's possible we're on the verge of a "second industrial revolution" because of AI. I'll confess that I totally underestimated AI, and figured that by the time AI was writing decent code society would have formulated a plan for what to do when white-collar workers start becoming redundant. This obviously isn't what happened. What is going to happen to the swarms of Uber Eats riders on ebikes? Or all of the new immigrant truckers? Western governments have been keeping immigration relatively high to keep the service sector packed with unskilled, lowly paid service workers. What are we going to do with them all if drones replace Uber Eats riders, or self-driving trucks take over logistics? What I'm seeing now makes me doubt that we're going to look after all these people.

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1. corimaith ◴[23 Oct 25 11:35 UTC] No.45680664[source]▶
If AI can replace white collar workers than it will also cheap enough for everyone to start running their own business and join the capitalist class.

The problem is alot of people can only conceive of a life where they are handed work and a salary by someone else, when that was only ever a particular circumstance for the last few decades. Whether they can grow out of that is another question, but those who can't won't find much agency.

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2. staticman2 ◴[23 Oct 25 12:02 UTC] No.45680862[source]▶
If your white collar skills are redundant at a company, they don't magically become valued if you call yourself a small business.
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3. corimaith ◴[23 Oct 25 12:37 UTC] No.45681121[source]▶
No? But I'd be creating products, not services that are already automated. Build that video game you always wanted to make, or setup a robot food truck offering your family recipes. Work with a consortium to build a luxury mall or theme park in your neighborhood. Or just invest/arbitrage in the market if you are too lazy to do it yourself. There is a vast amount of economic opportunities to take that aren't just pure labor offering.