Post Scarcity Society Without Mass Automation

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Author argues that even without all these technologies, post scarcity is still possible. The key was not to get rid of work entirely, but to reorganize it as a collective planning project. This includes redistributing the wage work and free giving of goods and services. We could live in a world where everyone could pursue their dreams, he says. But if we want to get there, we're going to have to change the way that we organize work.

Paris Marx is joined by Aaron Benanav to discuss why jobs are getting worse because the economy’s slowing down, not because technology is speeding up, and why that requires a vision of post-scarcity centered around human relationships instead of technological change.

Aaron Benanav is an economic historian and social theorist. He is a post-doctoral researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin and author of “Automation and the Future of Work.” Follow Aaron on Twitter as @abenanav.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network and follow it on Twitter as @harbingertweets.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Prop 22 passed in California, stopping gig workers from becoming employees
Paris explains the limits of a basic income, how Aaron’s book helps us think about the future, and the problems with luxury communism
Aaron explains why automation isn’t wiping out jobs
Aaron’s science fiction reading list: “The Dispossessed,” “The Word for World is Forest,” and “Always Coming Home” by Ursula K. Le Guin; “Red Star” by Alexander Bogdanov; “Hard to be a God” and “Noon: 22nd Century” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky; “News from Nowhere” by William Morris; “Looking Backward” by Edward Bellamy; “The Conquest of Bread” by Peter Kropotkin; “Trouble on Triton” by Samuel R. Delaney; “Star Maker” by Olaf Stapledon; and “Utopia” by Thomas Moore.

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