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0 pointskomali21mo ago0 comments

> Business problems are essentially neverending

That feels overly optimistic. LLMs seems on track to automate out basically any "email job" or "spreadsheet job," in which case we'll be looking at higher unemployment numbers than the great depression for at least some period of time. Combine with increased automation...

There are a LOT of people in the world and already a not insignificant portion can't find work despite wanting to. Seems the most likely thing is that the value of most labor is reduced to pennies.

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blackqueeriroh1mo ago

Do you really think the billionaires are willing to have consumers so impoverished that they can’t continue to spend large sums of discretionary income buying the things that make the billionaires themselves richer?

kristiandupont1mo ago

They may not be, but even so they might find themselves in a prisoner's dilemma. I wouldn't rely in this logic for peace of mind.

komali2OP1mo ago

I've read a theory that as the ultra rich divide their wealth among their descendants, eventually they capture so much of it among their families that trying to extract more from the working class is hardly worth the effort. The only option then, for the descendants of the ultra wealthy, is to start turning on each other. The theory states that the last time this happened was WWI.

Capricorn24811mo ago

The billionaires are already billionaires. People like Sam Altman are not building a doomsday bunker because they believe in the longevity of established society. They are doing it because they've already won and are taking their ball.

IanCal1mo ago

Well what would each billionaire do? Give out money so that the poor can give some of it back?

You cannot just point at a system, say it’d be unsustainable and then assume nobody will let that happen.

Monarchies, lords, etc. have had much more reason to support their own countryfolk, yet many throughout history have not - has society changed enough that the billionaires have changed on this?

operatingthetan1mo ago

What evidence is there otherwise? That seems to be exactly what they want.

ssl-31mo ago

The impoverished are cheaper to enslave.

windward1mo ago

Megacap investors already cargo cult business practices that reduce their own return and harm employees. This is why they all over-hired at the start of covid only to begin layoffs a couple of years later.

In summary: billionaires aren't as competent as you'd hope.

edgyquant1mo ago

“The billionaires” are a boogeyman and not a cabal with all that much power in the west.

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