How about a four day work week and no AI? I’m so done with this timeline.
The whole point of advancing technology is to make our lives easier. Why are we still working this hard after a century (or more) of extreme technological advancement?
The whole point of advancing technology is to make our lives easier.
The point is to make our lives better, not easier.
Is that the same thing? Maybe, maybe not.Either way AI is doing neither right now.
We should’ve had a four-day workweek decades ago. Computers have already automated so much without LLMs.
Let AI take over in exchange for 4 work days? Nope. Still not worth it even it we would get it.
And jesus christ, Bernie. Please don’t let this AI psyslop marketing campaign be the note you end on. :-(
I mean what’s next? Bernie Coin?
I’ve had a few critisims with Bernie with what hes saying about ai recently.
I don’t want to discredit him because I feel hes doing what he thinks is best, and honestly is kind of all we got for a big name right now. The people in the anti Ai space that I look up to havent really reached the average American you interact with daily in real life.
I think much like all the other politicians he doesnt fully understand the technology, and hes coming at it from the perspective he always has had. Which is protecting workers from corperations, and pushing for more socalist causes. Which I still think we need desperately, I’m not trying to say otherwise.
What I am concerned about is that Bernie is in some shape or form aiding these Ai companies in some way.
Like pushing for Ai devs who try to create agsi to be sent to prison for 20 years sounds great but then you realize that Sam altman and elon musk agree with him, and you wonder why. Regulation capture? A morally ethical excuse to slow down when ai is hitting brick walls in progress.
And with the idea of a 4 day work week, and ubi. In theory yes I do want those, but if you been paying attention to the conversations around Ai and stuff like ubi you learn that in order for ubi to work they have to remove social security, healthcare, food stamps, low income housing which cost dramatically more than the measly check you will receive every month. Thats my worst nightmare, everyone only gets 600-800 a month and is left to fend for themselves in a world where ai manipulates them with dark patterns into lighting national Forrest on fire so they can get rich on polymarket. Or they have to use the claud slot machine to pay for multiple spins on a chance to get working code for their gig working job, that takes a 30% cut ontop of all the api tokens.
So I’m torn in some ways because I’m worried that the path through all this is riddled with mine fields, and we could some how end up in position worse than we are in now just due to how much people are pushing for ANYTHING right now.
The change I ususally see fit is much more radical and not really realistic, and I don’t see the general publics mindset really catching up for a few more years. And in two years the landscape could of changed dramatically.
I think it’s as simple as the fact that he’s old and just doesn’t understand the tech and how it’s mostly smoke and mirrors. He’s probably got malicious people influencing him as well. It’s sad but this why public servants need mandatory retirement before they get to this stage.
He’s not been ‘bought’ or anything unless they’ve convinced him that they’ll transfer his mind into an LLM or something so he’ll live forever.
Seriously though that’s probably going to be a selling point soon. Promising all the sick and dying people of this country a shot immortality (with the power of AI!) in exchange for votes and their life savings. Remember that cryonics scam? Anything to keep the bubble going.
I’m not anti berni in anyway I don’t think hes malicious in any shape or form.
Just now that topic is on ai something I’ve been a little more tuned into I’m noticing the cracks.
I’d still support much of anything he is pushing for, because frankly he has much more lived experience for me and despite his lack of knowledge in some areas, vastly out performs me in all others.
Theres things in too stupid to understand, I’m not a economist, or a historian etc. I’m just some dude on the internet who spends too much time politicising everything. Maybe I’m wrong about things, and Bernie’s one of the few that has earned enough trust with me where I would be blindly faithful. Like if he spearheaded a successful anti Ai, pro socalist movement theres a lot I would kind of feel I have to go along with, just to keep mom/dad or the kids from fighting in the family. If that anology makes sense.
I’d still spout my long winded over opinionated wall of texts on Lemmy and stuff, but I’d vote or go along with things I don’t nessisarly agree with if I seemed like it at least brought us a little closer to where we should be.
I still don’t trust when people talk about UBI though. (Not us I assume we have the best intentions here, but politicians, news ankers, podcasters, etc) Tell me the plan to make ai pay for it, and ensure me all social welfare service are intact and I’m all for it. But bribing everyone with cash to get rid of health services is insane. These companies have made every little thing as addictive as possible to extract wealth out of you, and that UBI check is just going to end up back in the hands of people like polymarket, fentenal dealers, and fast food companies.
Like we should do things like reducing the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables on food stamps so people could get more benifits while encouraging healthier eating. Instead food stamps have been dramatically reduced and require people to work. Well the poorest of the poor often don’t have a home, and due to that they can’t work.
What’s worse is people like RFK are talking about bringing in labor camps, as if the prison belt wasn’t making enough money from forced labor of the underclass. So we are actively creating yet another extractive/exploitative system which profits off of the suffering of the people who have it worst.
4-day workweek and UBI, please.
A UBI would effectively enable a 4 day work week regardless.
Even when the progressives mention ubi it ALWAYS comes at the cost of removing all other social services like health care, low income housing, food stamps, social security. So imagine recieveing up to 5000+ dollars a month in benefits being taken away from you because the dumb majority is excited to get their 600-800 dollar a month bribe so that they can go yolo it all on so driven polymarket.
We need more social welfare not less. Trump already is gutting social welfare services to pump that money into ai.
The homeless don’t even get benifits now due to work requirements, and they can’t get a job because they don’t have a home. And RFK is talking about putting them in camps.
True UBI should replace those other services, because it should be a basic income that allows people to survive without a job. You shouldn’t need additional health care because we should have medicare for all. You shouldn’t need low income housing because your UBI should be enough to pay for a modest home. You shouldn’t need food stamps because UBI should cover it.
The fact that it’s always framed as “$600 bribe!!!” is infuriating and absolutely wrong, because that’s far from “basic.” “Basic” would mean enough to live on, without requirement.
Again in theory I want ubi, but as I see it, its a way to reduce benifits.
Maybe the more I think about it I don’t like it I’m not sure.
At its core ubi adds flexibility, and the ability for people to manage their resources at their own needs. At the same time that’s part of the problem. Already social security doesnt cover it, there’s people in their 70’s still working at Walmart and thats including disabilities, healthcare, and food stamps if they still receive all those. I think UBI is better for private corperations to step in and capture that money instead of trying to assure peoples needs are met.
I just don’t see how in the world we currently exist in how its going to work out. I feel like major structural change has to come first and we are better off with things like universal healthcare, state housing, etc.
That way it provides state/federal jobs. Often people critize goverment workers for being lazy, slow, and decently paid. I say yeah that’s the point. If we are facing job loss having a form of guaranteed employment is nice. And having some inefficiency is good, providing a work life balance and not expecting ai to 3x peoples work loads is good for society.
Welfare shouldn’t be this ai ran numbers maximizer for effiecency.
You’re saying “we shouldn’t do it because the government would ruin it.” I’m saying “the government shouldn’t ruin it.” To which you responded, “yeah but what if they do tho?”
I know all of that, and I’m not saying that this is the easy way out. But UBI is a much more effective and stress-tested way to introduce an effective social safety net to a capitalist society when done right. So I think we should do it right.
I don’t see why UBI has to remove the rest of social services. Feels like that would fit in the “More social welfare” bin.
I don’t need Bernie to fully understand AI before he continues advocating for the people. He also has enough of a track record to trust that he does not blindly believe the AI rhetoric, which is primarily pushed by the same Corpo types he usually rails against. I’d wager he’s also for adding guard rails and protections.
Its good to keep pushing for good things, despite whatever noise is going on. Perfect being the enemy of good has sidetracked many an effort. Like conservatives have had no problem taking their little victories over the years chipping away at rights before going full out fascist. We need little victories do push back too.
It doesnt have to remove all the social welfare programs but every single time its mentioned in a discussion that’s how its described to work. Not our discussions but think tanks, podcasts with politicians, news talking heads, etc.
Also if we keep losing the welfare services we have now due to ai, what makes you think suddenly they are going to be okay with adding more. Especially one of such massive scale to promise every single human cash money.
These people keep using the term effiecency as if welfare needs to be some profitable thing.
As a study of what these Ai people think we should look at asha sharma who used to hold a position at the Ai division at Microsoft, who recently took over as the lead for Xbox.
She is there to pretend they are doing compromise and working for the people, yet at the same time cannibalizing the product they are working on to further chase the all mighty ai dollar. Xbox game pass the cloud gaming service keeps hiking up prices, making ad tiers, and now adding 25 hours a month limit to how much you can stream. Xbox game pass is already doing the worst it has, and Xbox doesnt want to make game consoles anymore, meaning game pass is all they have. All that compute at the data centers is getting repurposed for Ai, leaving xbox to die on the vine. Potentially bringing down all the developers that it bought with it.
Asha sharma was recently asked to be apart of some federal reserve task force. If you ask me that sounds like she is going to be incharge of the same exact thing. Canabilizing the system she was meant to “help” and funnel those profits to ai.
And asha sharma is just the name that’s in my head right now, this is practically everyone on goverment, or the head of a buisness. When they talk about UBI, its not because they believe in some greater good, or want their companies to get taxed more to pay for it. No its because it benifits them in some way. The system is pay to win, and people can easily be manipulated into fucking themselves over because they don’t want to think two steps ahead.
The whole “four-day workweek” thing, just say “higher pay” because what you’re really asking for is that people get paid more per hour worked, such that they get paid the same, and only work four days instead of five. Why do you have to make it so complicated? PAY PEOPLE THEIR FAIR SHARE.
You all get a four day work week!
Did I mention there are no more jobs?
We should have a 4 day work week anyway, maximum.
4 10 hour days, right?
/s
I hate how people are so used to getting ripped off that they hear “four day work week” and assume that it’s going to be 4-10’s.
Like this is Bernie. He’s not perfect, but he gets this type of shit right. Obviously he’s advocating a 32 hour, 4-day work week. It says so in the article that apparently no one read. But people are just so inured to everything getting worse all the time. Damn.
I also think companies should start paying for commute times, and that the time paid should be adjusted based on the cost of living in the area and the salary.
Of someone chooses to live 3 hours away when they could live in walking distance, that’s one thing. But I work for a municipality in a prohibitively expensive area. 0 city employees live in the city they work and literally 100% of households are multi-millionaires or better. I have a 90-120 minute commute depending on traffic because that’s where I can afford to live on my salary, but it also means I’m essentially working 3-4 hours extra a day.
Of course the city isn’t gonna pay me 50% again more money, but if they were required to pay for my commute time they’d suddenly agree that I only really need to be in the office about once a week for public meetings since mostly what I do is Teams meetings, plan review, phone calls and emails, which could be done just as easily from my home office as at City Hall.
Shit - I get more done remote because I don’t have to deal with people walking in without an appointment and demanding a meeting.
best companies can do is: fuck you get back in the office. butts in seats. 29/8 grindset. ₖᵢₗₗ ₘₑ
Not to be argumentative or anything like that, just wanted to state that I used to have a job where we worked 4 tens and I loved it. Two more hours a day kinda sucked, but having a 3 day weekend every week was nice. Granted, 4 8s would be better if I still made the same money every week.
I suspect many of us will be getting 7 day weekends whether we want it or not.
The first couple of long weekends are nerve wracking but eventually your body enters rotting phase and then it’s not so bad and you kinda don’t want your 200 day weekend to end
I work in a call center doing customer support, I fear this every day.
How does farming or the trades interest you?
Everyday, I wish that I had become an electrician.
Unfortunately, I can’t afford to go back to school.
What a stupid fucking statement. There’s not going to be any workers left.
fucking lol
To be fair, when I was in primary school, we were assured that the “digital revolution” (or whatever hype phrase was popular) would halve working hours, etc. What it didn’t consider is that bosses would simply demand more productivity.
I mean at all. It didn’t cross their minds that we’d be expected to be twice as productive now that everything was twice as quick. (And so on). 🤯
As history has shown, repeatedly, the only time a worker wins is when they unionise, protest and fight for improvements. You get nothing for free in the mediaeval, feudal system of the workplace.
“Should”
The USA left “should” in about 1950. There is no “should” here.
Workers were abandoned by the Democrats long ago. Union membership is now less than 10% (and most of that is government employees, ironically)… it was almost 50% back in the “good old days”.
There is no labor party in the USA, there is no anti-war party, there is no anti-billionaire party. There should be. But there’s not.
Well, union busting prevents workers from banding coallitions and adding the unions. F-, blame Walmart and Amazon.
That was a thing long before Amazon and Walmart. It’s just capitalism in action
where even is thr limit to “union busting” would the corporation striking against the employees by closing the sites where there were strikes for a few months be considered union busting despite being the same as ehat unions do to corps?
Back in the 50s they thought automation would mean we’d all have too much free time.
Too bad anyone left of Nixon was a communist.
I’m willing to work 4x 7 hour days. If you think about the last 30 years of computer enhancing productivity, we’re owed a lot!
I work like a truck, so 4x4 would be appropriate.
I work like a piece of wood, so 2x4 is all I’m asking
And they’re really like 1.6x3.5
I work like a Dolly, 9 days a week 5 hours a day.
She would be so proud of you 🥹
Does nobody think about the managers?
/s
Thank you, it was a long time since I shared this insightful graph. https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
4x6 with 1 hour for lunch. 2 hour lunch break if I have to go to the office.
Why not 3x 7 hour days if the productivity gains are that great‽
yeah other places like the netherlands already did 4 day weeks before AI. we can go further.
A human has something like 4-6 hours of good work in them per day and the balance should be on life rather than work so 3 days of max 6h could be a start.
Everything would work as is and better and we can adjust to less allocation
it’s kinda bringing a “0 hour work” week for a lot of people.
I don’t care if they bring 0 work day if they pay me universal income. I could learn full stack, draw, read books, open a company, etc. Now all I do is word, excels, and a tiny bit of incident response.
I went to college for spreadsheets.
Obligatory shoutout to read David Graeber’s “Bullshit Jobs”.
It needs to bring a UBI with it.
Copy paste from another reply to a comment:
Even when the progressives mention ubi it ALWAYS comes at the cost of removing all other social services like health care, low income housing, food stamps, social security. So imagine recieveing up to 5000+ dollars a month in benefits being taken away from you because the dumb majority is excited to get their 600-800 dollar a month bribe so that they can go yolo it all on ai driven polymarket.
We need more social welfare not less. Trump already is gutting social welfare services to pump that money into ai.
The homeless don’t even get benifits now due to work requirements, and they can’t get a job because they don’t have a home. And RFK is talking about putting them in camps.
Oh that note, looking back, Andrew Yang might have been the best choice for a nominy in 2020.
Imagine if chatGPT came out and then the president of US, who fully understands the enshitification and rug pull model of Silicon Valley just slapped a huge VAT tax on it, or maybe forced companies to charge the real price.
Man Biden was such a bad choice in 2020
corpo dems gonna corpo
I’ll give you that on Biden but nuh uh on Yang.
On February 17, 2022, Yang announced the launch of a Web3 community whose membership token fees would be used to fund lobbying work on behalf of Web3, blockchain, and cryptocurrency interests on Capitol Hill.[64]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Yang
Ideologically, Forward is populist and reformist, and a representative of centrism in the United States. It considers itself to be the center within the American political spectrum, although the party has also been described as big tent or syncretic due to its unwillingness on holding any firm stances or positions,[4]
It‘s a shitty system if all you can do is hoping for the perfect president to fix everything while mega corps and billionaires are actively working to keep those guys out of office. You need a grass roots movement against billionaires, against lobbying and against presidential powers if you want a piece of that growing productivity cake.
Andrew Yang might have been known to treat his audience to a nominy, a folk orative tradition of speeches delivered with formulaic rhyming prose, much to the other nominees’ chagrin.
UBI without price control is useless. Rent is just going to go up by that amount and same for utilities, food, etc.
That would be a profound lack of imagination on companies. Raising prices to cover costs make sense since all businesses will be affected in the same way equally, but to just do it because everyone has more money doesn’t, your competitor might just undercut you by keeping their prices the same, and then get all the profit.
Lol.
Have you seen how the real economy works? It works by creating monopolies, fixing prices, lobbying for public contracts and subsidies and moving everything into private equity.
Do you think landowners won’t leech every cent they can get away with?
landlords are to centralized, and too regulated to provide affordable services
My sweet summer child…
That assumes that everything isn’t either owned by monopolies, trusts, or even just companies all agreeing to hike prices
Speaking of lack of imagination…
