[HN Gopher] On the Candlemaker's Petition
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       On the Candlemaker's Petition
        
       Author : simonebrunozzi
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2023-03-05 20:44 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (pmarca.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (pmarca.substack.com)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | woodruffw wrote:
       | I'm having trouble parsing the intended message here: are we
       | supposed to draw some conclusion about AI from this verbatim copy
       | of Bastiat's petition?
        
         | markisus wrote:
         | The analogy is between AI and the sun. Just as the sun provides
         | free labor and puts candle-makers out of a job, AI will soon
         | provide free labor and put humans working in industry X out of
         | a job. Bastiat's argument is that there will be a net benefit
         | to humanity from such free labor effects.
        
           | simonebrunozzi wrote:
           | The problem is whether the then-candlemakers, or today's
           | knowledge workers, will be out of a job, or not.
           | 
           | In his other recent newsletter post, Marc Andreessen actually
           | claims that AI will not cause unemployment [0].
           | 
           | [0]: https://pmarca.substack.com/p/why-ai-wont-cause-
           | unemployment
        
             | tapland wrote:
             | A ton of jobs have become obsolete. The candlemaker did
             | lose his job to technology. It's not obvious that other
             | sectors will be there to offer them a new one, so the fear
             | is justified.
        
             | nicoburns wrote:
             | More generally, the problem is how the profits from the
             | saved labour are shared around society. That distribution
             | need not necessarily be distributed in return for labour.
        
               | LewisVerstappen wrote:
               | > the problem is how the profits from the saved labour
               | are shared around society
               | 
               | Not really. You can take an Econ 101 class to see that
               | high profits will lead to more competition which leads to
               | lowering of prices... which kills the excess profits and
               | results in higher consumer surplus.
               | 
               | There are scenarios of market failures, where you might
               | have a monopolistic entity but we have safety checks for
               | that too with anti-trust policy.
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-05 23:00 UTC)