Thread by @TristamPratori1

One thing that people should consider is that the negative impacts of automation aren't necessarily robots replacing occupations.

Let me introduce you to overproduction.

In tradeable, capital-intensive sectors, overproduction and overcapacity takes hold. Commodities rapidly devalue. This places limitations on wages, causes mass layoffs, bankruptcies of smaller firms and firm consolidation to insulate from deflationary pressure.

Manufacturing is a classic example, which has been in frequent crisis and stagnation for decades.

Technological progress and tradeability is often seen as good thing, but in sectors that obtain ultra-productive capabilities, this often reaches a point of rabid instability.

Capitalist economies have been able to avoid a forever-crisis because of a transition from manufacturing to services and finance.

Manufacturing is a sector with depressed profitability, cartelization and monopolization, falling employment, stagnant wages etc.

Automation is good, but it also spreads this disease to the rest of the economy, which requires fundamental social reform to deal with effectively --- you all know what I am mean by this. ;)

You can also see much of this technological crisis in oil.

They overproduced, prices plunged, layed-off 100,000+ workers, automated wells to a large extent, bankruptcies (especially in 2020 and 2021) etc.

So in short, history has shown that many sectors with high levels of automation eventually become characterized by perpetual crisis.

The output of products and labor productivity expands beyond the bounds of a stable profit-making firm, forcing constant cycles of restructuring.