Jobs Are the Worst Thing About Capitalism
Why Capitalism + AI might be the update patch we’ve all been waiting for.
It might be my own weird way of looking at things, but I often thought the worst thing about Capitalism are jobs, and specifically needing a job.
Entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity and the freedom to make your own decisions are all good aspects of Capitalism - I certainly don’t think a centralized planned economy offers a more meaningful, joyful life or anywhere near the level of prosperity.
It also seems like a good thing that if you make something great that adds value to many people’s lives you can make more money and earn more degrees of freedom in your life. Almost nobody resents a successful author, comedian, or inventor the money they made.
The worst part about Capitalism is and has always been being forced to choose between serving someone else’s vision or going hungry, which based on your experience, capabilities, and risk tolerance is a real possibility.
Capitalism with a great safety net and the total ability to choose your own activities would be close to ideal - and both of these changes seem possible for the first time due to AI.
A substantial safety net becomes imaginable because for the first time - it doesn’t represent a demand for someone else to work harder to fund your welfare. Rather - it can be a claim to some percentage of machine labor, in a world of unimaginable abundance.
Full autonomy over your time also becomes imaginable - because the people who own most of the wealth will gradually need less and less of your time as machines start doing a better job for way less money.
What will happen then? Hard to tell, but history shows that when people have leisure and the freedom and autonomy to use it as they like - humanity can leap forward.
Leisure is one of the most evident common threads between ancient Greece, renaissance Italy, and enlightenment Europe - all times of unrivaled creativity, productivity, and growth. In Ancient Greece it was on the backs of slaves. In Europe it was on the backs of the lower classes. But in our time, it could be on the backs of machines.
If those periods are any indication, we could be looking at an explosion in cultural, intellectual, and scientific creation. Even more so if AI can help speed those processes up.
But for that to happen, of course - we have to work on a gradual introduction of two fundamental "patches" to Capitalism. One - a robust safety net for every person. Second - the freedom from unwanted labor. (I.e - the absolute ability to say no to any job for any period of time without losing access to basic necessities.)
What would you do if you didn’t have to think about money ever again?
Isn’t it worth striving for?