So many companies cut their workforce as much as 10-15% citing that those jobs can be fully automated by the use of AI but I am still waiting to see any meaningful price cuts of their products from the said companies, etc.

Otherwise this will mean that they are doing this just to increase their profit margins and please their shareholders and don’t care about their customers or workforce.

23 points

Otherwise this will mean that they are doing this just to increase their profit margins and please their shareholders and don’t care about their customers or workforce.

All for profit business moves are always in the direction of lowering the cost to maximise the profit.

There have been instances where shareholders have removed executive officers because they wanted to go down that path but that goes against the priorities of the shareholders.

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6 points

If I recall correctly, the shareholders also can and will sue you if you make a decision that earns them less money than if you had done something more profitable for them. So the companies have a legal incentive to only serve their shareholders.

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17 points

The core thing the rich left out when they invented “Trickle Down Economics” was that it’s not money that trickles down onto us.

Same goes for efficiency or productivity improvements. Those haven’t done to the US workers since Nixon, and definitely not since Regan.

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22 points
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Trickle down wasn’t invented in the 1980s. It was a rebranding of what was previously pilloried as horse and sparrow economics in that if you let horses gorge on oats, some undigested oat will pass through their systems and be deposited in the fields for the sparrows to eat.

Gee, I wonder why they rebranded.

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8 points

Human centipede economics.

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4 points

Far more accurate lol. Nothing’s trickling down except some half-digested oats covered in horseshit

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1 point

You’re correct. I’d forgotten about Horse and Sparrow.

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15 points
*

Why the hell would they do that when their customers are already willing to pay the current prices?

Suppose you make widgets at a cost of $50 and sell them online for $100 each. Through the use of AI, you were able to fire half of your employees and now the cost of producing a widget is down to $30, a net saving of $20.

Why would you choose to lower the price of the widget from $100 to $80 instead of continuing to sell the widget at $100 and pocketing the $20 for yourself? What incentive have you got to reduce your price?

It may sound cold and cruel, because it is, but this is just how capitalism works. It is not in their economic interest to reduce their prices.

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2 points

Exactly. And the same thing will happen when fusion energy is figured out: energy prices remain the same, almost 100% of revenue gets pocketed as profit. “Limitless free energy” my ass.

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56 points

Your first mistake was thinking large companies care about customers - you’re just an obstacle to your wallet

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9 points

Workers are just obstacles to their labour

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9 points

The most amount of your money possible should spend the least amount of time possible in your bank account. In fact, you’re probably a terrorist if you don’t simply sign over your entire monthly income to BigCorp, you terrorist.

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6 points

Just like paying decent wages is just seen as a loss of money for them.

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2 points

My father once tried to tell me that capitalism was fundamentally about making people happy. Because, see, the whole point is bringing to market a product that people want to give you their money for. That’s the whole point, you see. The people wanting things. The money is just a by-product, you probably shouldn’t pay too much attention to it. It’s not like another word for money is “capital” or anything.

What a riot.

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4 points

They are doing this just to increase their profit margins and please their shareholders and don’t care about their customers or workforce

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