It is amusing that someone espousing the principle “Nothing is owned” would have his hero use the words “my” and “mine” so many times in the penultimate paragraph. And that the plot twist that saves the hero’s life is the fact that his parent had purchased some shares of stock several years before.
All in all, it was a weirdly disjointed mix of physical economic realism and rhetorical economic silliness. “Everything is free” we are told in one paragraph. “Everyone receives credits which they can use to buy things”, it is explained in the next paragraph.
Presumably our hero will be able to pass on his “share” to his descendents, just as his father did. But what happens to children born in Australia without shares? Do they get shipped to America to be warehoused? Population control issues are never mentioned.
People who own robot capital may well choose to live lives of leisure, as they do in this story. People who do not own robots will have to compete with robots in the labor market. At what kinds of jobs will they have comparative advantage? Well, clearly the owners of robots are unlikely to risk losing their capital by assigning their valuable property to tasks in which the robots face the probability of being blown up. So, it is likely that the fate of the poor will be to serve as soldiers in the various armies of the future—whether revolutionary or counter-revolutionary, imperialist or anti-imperialist. Cannon fodder. Except in peace time when they may be kept docile with bread and circuses. If there is much peace time.
Well, clearly the owners of robots are unlikely to risk losing their capital by assigning their valuable property to tasks in which the robots face the probability of being blown up. So, it is likely that the fate of the poor will be to serve as soldiers in the various armies of the future—whether revolutionary or counter-revolutionary, imperialist or anti-imperialist. Cannon fodder. Except in peace time when they may be kept docile with bread and circuses. If there is much peace time.
I have no idea why you think that the cost of feeding a human soldier, even if you sent him to the battlefield naked and unarmed to fight other waves of human flesh, would be lower than deploying a drone.
Population reduction tempered by charity efforts by the robot owning humans seems more probable. Also over time the majority of non-robot owning humans might be part of feral populations if there is any natural habitat left.
Spoiler alert!
It is amusing that someone espousing the principle “Nothing is owned” would have his hero use the words “my” and “mine” so many times in the penultimate paragraph. And that the plot twist that saves the hero’s life is the fact that his parent had purchased some shares of stock several years before.
All in all, it was a weirdly disjointed mix of physical economic realism and rhetorical economic silliness. “Everything is free” we are told in one paragraph. “Everyone receives credits which they can use to buy things”, it is explained in the next paragraph. Presumably our hero will be able to pass on his “share” to his descendents, just as his father did. But what happens to children born in Australia without shares? Do they get shipped to America to be warehoused? Population control issues are never mentioned.
People who own robot capital may well choose to live lives of leisure, as they do in this story. People who do not own robots will have to compete with robots in the labor market. At what kinds of jobs will they have comparative advantage? Well, clearly the owners of robots are unlikely to risk losing their capital by assigning their valuable property to tasks in which the robots face the probability of being blown up. So, it is likely that the fate of the poor will be to serve as soldiers in the various armies of the future—whether revolutionary or counter-revolutionary, imperialist or anti-imperialist. Cannon fodder. Except in peace time when they may be kept docile with bread and circuses. If there is much peace time.
I have no idea why you think that the cost of feeding a human soldier, even if you sent him to the battlefield naked and unarmed to fight other waves of human flesh, would be lower than deploying a drone.
Population reduction tempered by charity efforts by the robot owning humans seems more probable. Also over time the majority of non-robot owning humans might be part of feral populations if there is any natural habitat left.