Bill Gates envisions a two-day work week thanks to AI, prompting a reevaluation of our workplaces. There's a debate about whether new jobs will emerge as automation takes over existing roles. The discussion highlights rising housing costs and workforce stress exacerbated by neoliberal policies. With automation potentially leading to greater economic disparities, voices call for universal basic income solutions amid concerns about increasing energy consumption from AI. The landscape of labor and tech ethics raises urgent questions about our societal future.
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insights INSIGHT
Work Hours Predictions Fail
Bill Gates and John Maynard Keynes predicted drastically reduced working hours due to technological advances.
However, increased productivity has historically led to more work and stress, not less work time.
insights INSIGHT
Labor Supply and Power Dynamics
Increased labor supply and power shift to capitalists caused longer work hours and lower real wages.
Women joining the workforce increased labor supply and changed household economic dynamics.
insights INSIGHT
Tech Progress Depends on Power
Technological progress benefits depend on workers securing a substantial income share.
Energy exploitation drives productivity, but political shifts reduced workers' bargaining power, increasing inequality.
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Published in 1949, '1984' is a cautionary tale by George Orwell that explores the dangers of totalitarianism. The novel is set in a dystopian future where the world is divided into three super-states, with the protagonist Winston Smith living in Oceania, ruled by the mysterious and omnipotent leader Big Brother. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the Party's ever-changing narrative. He begins an illicit love affair with Julia and starts to rebel against the Party, but they are eventually caught and subjected to brutal torture and indoctrination. The novel highlights themes of government surveillance, manipulation of language and history, and the suppression of individual freedom and independent thought.
Bill Gates has predicted that within 10 years we’ll be working a two-day week, thanks to advances in AI. He says it’ll mean a vast rethinking of the workplace. It’s not too dissimilar to Keynes's prediction in the 1930s that wed al be working 15-hour weeks, with more time to enjoy the good things in life.
Of course, Keynes was wrong. We are working longer hours with loads more stress. Tools to aid productivity have freed up time for us to take new jobs and add to the economic output. Steve says a lot of this extra income has been used to increase the price of assets, particularly housing.
This time, though, who is to say the replacement jobs will exist. AI and robots could replace us in almost every job. So then what do we do? A universal basic income, perhaps, which Phil says will not be too dissimilar to unemployment benefit. But that’s going to take more government money. If we ignore the MMT arguments about governments’ ability to create money the only way to pay for the unemployed is through higher taxes on those businesses doing the work. But the focus today is on less regulation, so these companies can complete their cycle of job destruction unhindered. As a society have we really thought this through?
Debunking Economics - the podcast 