automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (22 Jun 2016 17:58 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Bruce Johnson (22 Jun 2016 18:32 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (22 Jun 2016 23:21 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (22 Jun 2016 23:29 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Kenneth Barns (22 Jun 2016 23:35 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (22 Jun 2016 23:54 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Kenneth Barns (23 Jun 2016 02:25 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Richard Aiken (23 Jun 2016 04:33 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Tim (23 Jun 2016 05:25 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Bruce Johnson (23 Jun 2016 18:17 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (23 Jun 2016 23:01 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Tim (24 Jun 2016 08:18 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Andrew Long (24 Jun 2016 15:21 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (25 Jun 2016 00:24 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Tim (25 Jun 2016 08:32 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Richard Aiken (25 Jun 2016 08:54 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Tim (25 Jun 2016 09:55 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (25 Jun 2016 20:01 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Bruce Johnson (26 Jun 2016 23:09 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Tim (24 Jun 2016 07:46 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (10 Jul 2016 00:15 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Richard Aiken (10 Jul 2016 05:49 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Abu Dhabi (10 Jul 2016 05:57 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications shadow@xxxxxx (10 Jul 2016 09:21 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications shadow@xxxxxx (10 Jul 2016 09:21 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Abu Dhabi (10 Jul 2016 11:09 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Richard Aiken (10 Jul 2016 11:38 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Kelly St. Clair (11 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Bruce Johnson (11 Jul 2016 14:33 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Jim Vassilakos (11 Jul 2016 20:31 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Abu Dhabi (11 Jul 2016 21:00 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Richard Aiken (11 Jul 2016 22:52 UTC)
Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications B Kruger (12 Jul 2016 06:58 UTC)

Re: [TML] automation and its ramifications Tim 24 Jun 2016 07:46 UTC

On Thu, Jun 23, 2016 at 06:17:25PM +0000, Bruce  Johnson wrote:
> > On Jun 22, 2016, at 10:25 PM, Tim <xxxxxx@little-possums.net> wrote:
> > Even in just the last 10 years, proportion of income spent on
> > physical goods has decreased from about 26% to 20% of household
> > expenditure in the UK, and similar figures seem to apply in other
> > developed nations.  This has corresponded with a comparable rise
> > in spending on services and non-material goods.
>
> I think you are confusing cause and effect here.

No, not really.

The topic of conversation is about what happens to the surplus wealth
generated by automation.

I read the original premise as saying that falling production costs
through automation would lead to increasing profits and therefore
increased concentration of wealth with the owners of the means of
production.  It would also lead to decreasing opportunities for
employment.

My counter-claim was that this surplus is not primarily going to
owners of increasingly automated factories.  The primary effect of
increasing automation is falling prices, not rising profits, and we
are choosing to direct most of the surplus toward suppliers of
services and non-material goods.  The latter sectors are typically
labour intensive, and so this leads to increasing opportunities for
employment.

> People are spending less on physical goods because physical goods
> are *cheaper*, and there’s a limit to how much physical goods you
> need to buy (or can fit in your home).

That's exactly what I was stating: the demand for physical goods is
increasing more slowly than that for services and non-material goods.

- Tim