Message from @Tanner - SC
Discord ID: 466741865585180672
That's the type of disruptive technology that sparks wars. Trucking employs 3.5 million men.
In the US.
@Der Seeteufel - SD yeah exactly. I'm like... "Wow, cool... I guess" but I feel like it will also put a lot of men out of work, but then again if it works it will probably be hard to stop that kind of economic force. Trucking as I understand it actually pays decently, which mean the globalists are going to gleefully push this.
I have all kinds of mixed feelings about it.
It would be a lot better if they were replacing the foreigners driving the taxis and Uber and stuff
Many foreigners drive trucks also.
Shovels put hand-diggers out of work and we’re all better for it.
@Tanner - SC Yeah but hand diggers weren't better off for it in their lifetimes, neither were luddites.
Sure they were. The technological breakthrough dropped the price of digging related goods and services, the technology enabled previously unfeasible developments, and the large amount of labor availability allowed other projects to develop.
I know many people who used to do secretarial work on typewriters and manually running around letters. They’re all far better off now, even though computers and email “killed” their jobs.
@Tanner - SC the worrying thing is that workers are being attacked in two fronts. One, the natural progress of technology, which is (arguably) a net positive to society, and the over crowding of the labor market via immigration
The problem isn't progress it's too rapid progress. We fought some pretty massive wars around the time of industrialization which resulted in a substantial reduction in the labor pool. I'm not necessarily saying that one thing lead to the other but when there is a sudden surge of unemployed men conflict usually follows shortly after.
Why didn’t the invention of the internet and computers set off a war? That was far more profound of a change than automated 18 wheelers.
Plus, autonomous 18 wheelers will not happen overnight and they will not transition immediately to zero drivers. I work with automation in manufacturing all the time. First you have the driver overseeing and intervening in some circumstances, then just overseeing, then maybe he manages 2 trucks at once, then 3. For all we know, this will simply allow more goods to be shipped by the same number of drivers. My manufacturing plant has seen that many times.
Fear of the unknown is overblown when it comes to technological progress. When cars were invented, many people insisted that the human body cannot survive at such speeds.
The internet created jobs that never existed before and the damage to people like postal workers was substantially limited by the government. Automated trucks represent a more serious threat to working class men in particular. Tech can cause significant disruption. Just look at the uber riots in France. They were more pissed off at some taxi drivers losing their jobs then they were about their women being raped by Africans
France protests in the streets and riots about anything and everything.
Speaking of out dated farm equipment. The automation of farming created a gigantic permanent underclass in the United States.
Their low IQ created a large permanent underclass
Ok so what happens to the IQ 90 white truck driver?
Economics is a study of the seen and the unseen. Everyone points to the “seen” and demands to know exactly what will happen.
I don’t know exactly what will happen to the 90 IQ truck driver. That doesn’t mean we should halt technological progress.
“If we asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses” - Henry Ford
“But what will happen to the buggy whip manufacturers?”
Look we've all read Bastiat. I'm not saying we should halt technological progress I'm just saying that it's likely to cause conflict.
Highly recommended book on the “seen” vs the “unseen”: <https://www.mises.org/library/economics-one-lesson>
Immigration is a problem. Not technological progress.
I think a future where no one owns cars, and your movements are tracked constantly through rideshare apps is scary, but automated vehicles would *greatly* alleviate the strains that we've seen with exploding populations in major metropolitan areas
Every one of these autonomous trucks will be running 24/7. That’s like 3x the uptime per truck of current. Someone has to load and unload all of these trucks. Someone has to make the tires that will get consumed at 3x the rate. Cheaper goods from lowered transport costs mean more money is free to go elsewhere, which will drive up jobs in those areas.
“No one will own cars” is ridiculous. Technology does not make things black and white.
People who would be better off sharing will share and people better off owning will still own.
Apartments are cheaper than houses, but not everyone lives in an apartment.
I’m not going to re-install child seats every morning in a new Uber autonomous car, nor am I going to share a child seat with strangers. I will continue to own a car. Maybe it’ll be autonomous, but I will own it. I also don’t ride the subway or a bus, even though those are cheaper. But the introduction of the subway and the bus were good for those who are better served by it.
@Tanner - SC of course it's ridiculous, I was being hyperbolic. However, car ownership will become a luxury few can afford in a future of self driving vehicles
Nonsense. You cannot say that with any lick of confidence.
Renting will become cheaper. That does not mean owning will become more expensive.
Look at the affordability if vehicles over the last 50 years. They've become a greater and greater percentage of a person's net worth, because of more and more technology
Because manipulated interest rates influencing a massive amount of lending and debt
Auto loans are in a huge bubble due to this.