Thread: Zuckerbergh to Harvard Grads: Make Your New Deal Happen

Originally Posted by Madeline

I wish Zuckerberg would use Facebook to help the millennials to organize a vision for their own futures, and demand it.

I don't think he's really involved anymore.

I think he just cashed out.

The right wing fear and hatred of Liberal Billionaires.....

Originally Posted by OldGaffer

The right wing fear and hatred of Liberal Billionaires.....

Guy they hate the most? Warren Buffett. Cuz Warren goes around saying things like this:

Warren Buffett: "Oh, there's class warfare, all right. But it's MY class, the rich, who are waging war. And we're winning."

Originally Posted by BigLeRoy

Guy they hate the most? Warren Buffett. Cuz Warren goes around saying things like this:

Warren Buffett: "Oh, there's class warfare, all right. But it's MY class, the rich, who are waging war. And we're winning."

Not George Soros?

I keep getting told he is FLINGING money at BLM protesters.

Ain't seen a dime of it yet, here in Cleveland.

Originally Posted by publius3

"Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks. But we have the potential to do so much more together. Every generation has its defining works. More than 300,000 people worked to put a man on the moon – including that janitor. Millions of volunteers immunized children around the world against polio. Millions of more people built the Hoover dam and other great projects. These projects didn't just provide purpose for the people doing those jobs, they gave our whole country a sense of pride that we could do great things." - Zuckerberg at Harvard

Its one way to think of it but not necessarily the best way. Clean electricity, moon shots or in our generation trips to Mars, cures for polio, or I suppose in our generation hopefully cancer and HIV among others, are definitely things we would want to do. But here's the thing, if we could do that with a cheap widget that took very little time to make and needed only one person to activate the widget that would be absolutely fantastic. Conversely, if it requires billions of people to work collectively then maybe that is just something we have to do. Nevertheless, we must never forget that jobs are a cost of our getting things done. The reason this is important is the age old issue of scarcity itself. Make no mistake about it, labor remains a 'scarce' resource. This is why productivity enhancing tools from the wheel to the shovel to the cotton harvester resulted in such enhanced living standards. They all free up labor for one purpose to be used in other purposes to achieve other things that we are desirous of achieving.

There's a systemic problem here in your comparison. Nearly anyone not disabled can use a shovel, but not everyone can effectively receive the education needed to do many jobs of the future. So labor remains a scare commodity even as laborers become incredibly cheap. That's an economic problem we haven't faced before--or rather, it's not a problem we've faced in an era when we value human life highly.

18th century Britain faced a somewhat similar problem--overpopulation of "waste" people. Jefferson called them "rubbish." The idea then was that disease, starvation, and draconian laws that provided capital punishment for even low-level property crimes would remove significant waste from the overall population. What wasn't killed in these ways could be transported--to America first and then to other colonies. Attraction to fight for other nations as cannon-fodder mercenaries was another strategy for getting rid of them.

How will we reduce the burden of waste people in our future? We have no place to send them, and it appears we can't conscience letting them die.

Robotic scientists are having no success trying to teach them to make art, or humor, or music. They cannot create.

I think we need a WPA-style arts program, and pay people to make art. Also the government needs to make markets for artists, use art in public spaces, etc.

Originally Posted by Madeline

Robotic scientists are having no success trying to teach them to make art, or humor, or music. They cannot create.

I think we need a WPA-style arts program, and pay people to make art. Also the government needs to make markets for artists, use art in public spaces, etc.

I thought Trumps budget totally defunded all those programs...

Originally Posted by OldGaffer

I thought Trumps budget totally defunded all those programs...

If you want to draw a picture I think you are still allowed.

Originally Posted by Spookycolt

If you want to draw a picture I think you are still allowed.

I think we need a WPA-style arts program, and pay people to make art. Also the government needs to make markets for artists, use art in public spaces, etc.

How did you address Madeline's post?

Originally Posted by OldGaffer

How did you address Madeline's post?

I was addressing your post.