Re robots & AI: what if labor is no longer the means of production in capitalism?

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Just now

We don’t have a handle on capitalism. By and large, we can’t even imagine a system not based on capitalism. In Escape from Capitalism, Carla Mattei explodes the myths we hold as basic truths. She does not promulgate leftist views or rightwing views. She is all about demystifying the assumptions of capitalism we all live by. It can be quite shocking.

The current malaise in capitalism is largely a function of workers losing their position in economic theory, she says. This is the book’s first Big Idea. Workers are no longer the means of production, as Marx described it. Capital has taken over that function too, automating, roboting and AIing its way to making workers totally superfluous. With no standing in the old balancing act between capital and labor, workers will have to accept crummier jobs, at lower pay, under worsening conditions. Capital will rule, unchallenged and unchallengeable. Billionaires will be the ones to decide the fate of all workers. And clearly, only solutions that make them even bigger piles of capital will be considered.

The second Big Idea concerns inflation. Mattei traces inflation back to Mussolini and fascism. The mess Mussolini inherited after WWI had to be straightened out, so he cut down the unions, ended government programs, raised interest rates…