Name: Myth of Automation: Automation and Capitalism—Debunking Second Thought
Uploaded: 2021-10-17T00:28:08+00:00
Duration: 24 min 30 s
Description: The myth of automation and capitalism is another common myth claimed by anticapitalist critiques to claim that capitalism is destroying the job market and will lead to widespread unemployment. In this

4 years ago

The myth of automation and capitalism is another common myth claimed by anticapitalist critiques to claim that capitalism is destroying the job market and will lead to widespread unemployment. In this video, debunking Second Thought, I touch upon the relation between the changing job market of how a market changes and adapts, as well as on the myths about the industrial revolution.

As usual, Second Thought likes to make baseless claims, especially when it comes to the wealth gap between the rich and poor, instead, projecting the blame off onto automation and capitalism.

What I didn't touch upon, and maybe should have, is the law of diminishing returns, which is something that could influence job losses, especially for people using machines, they only have a certain capacity of output in production, therefore, only a certain number of workers can use machines before there is a drop off point if exceeding the number of people using one machine. This argument would closely correlate with the manufacturing more specifically during the manual labour days of the industrial revolution and even in circumstances today as not everything is automated.

However, even for the myth of automation, more jobs are being created than those lost, again, socialists really only look at one side of things, they don't acknowledge the jobs being created.

Second Thought also repeatedly likes to attempt to pass off today's economy as somehow being strongly capitalist, when, in reality, it is corporatist. The free market is not involved and like I've mentioned, if anything is to blame for the soaring consumer prices, it is to blame on a variety of factors, such as; welfare and social security spending; more specific to Great Britain with the _"free"_ services, that are not actually free; the higher tax rates and over-regulation of the private sector, among other things. This explains why there is a problem in the market today, however, does not change or hide the fact that a higher level of productive output benefits the consumer through falling consumer prices.

• introduction: (0:00)
• Ever Changing Market: (0:14)
• Case for Human Labour: (1:35)
• Projectionism: (2:26)
• A Concession of Improvement: (3:04)
• Industrial Revolution Poverty Myth: (3:42)
• Capitalism vs Socialism: (4:56)
• Political vs Market Entrepreneurship: (5:34)
• Industrial Revolution Living Standards: (6:12)
• Fall of Workweek Hours: (8:26)
• Myth of Safety Regulation: (10:07)
• Exploitation Myth: (11:00)
• Undermining Wages Myth: (11:56)
• Today is No Different: (12:26)
• Benefits of Efficiency: (13:35)
• Costs of Living: (14:07)
• Wealth Gap Myth: (14:41)
• Myth of Free Market Monopolies: (16:07)
• Great Funding Problem: (16:53)
• Tragedy of the Commons: (18:59)
• Economic Calculation Problem: (21:01)
• Scarcity is Real: (22:03)
• Ignorance of Profits: (22:40)