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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  3175 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Refragmentation

In a sense, MZ has done a lot of classical work; what in the past would have been done by letter carriers, stenographers, photographers, designers, publishers, etc, are all managed through Facebook. I think that's what Graham means when he says technology "magnifies" work. He doesn't literally mean that one is doing more work in less time, but rather creating the conditions where work is done by proxy for those who can figure out how.

I think where Graham gets it wrong is in his assumption that most concentrated wealth is a result of technological innovation. In fact, most high paid people are financial services managers ("engineering" a new tradeable hedge instrument isn't the same as creating a new consumer product). Hyper-financialization is something that an be combated by policy tweaks, so long as they're well applied and root targeted. This is where I have a problem with Bernie Sanders. He seems to understand people's frustrations but doesn't seem to understand the root causes of them. Rich people are important to the world, and being rich isn't immoral, just like being poor isn't immoral.





mk  ·  3175 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I think that's what Graham means when he says technology "magnifies" work. He doesn't literally mean that one is doing more work in less time, but rather creating the conditions where work is done by proxy for those who can figure out how.

Sure. Even so, the wealth hasn't gone to those that are more productive in terms of work performed. Technology has altered the ability to organize. It used to be that your family would inherit/acquire land, and the people that worked it sent you wealth. Industrialization changed this so that you could organize labor independent of land, and acquire wealth from the labor. Software changed this so you could organize labor independent of materials (or even independent of employees), and acquire wealth.

The next step, is that organization will be possible without people as organizers.