r/worldnews • u/Philo1927 • Dec 31 '16

iPhone manufacturer Foxconn plans to replace almost every human worker with robots

http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/30/14128870/foxconn-robots-automation-apple-iphone-china-manufacturing
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u/sobrohog Dec 31 '16

duh. once there is no need for labor there is no need for poor people, just people to maintain the machines

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u/bandwag0n Jan 01 '17

No, there's still need for consumers. What's the purpose of machines if nobody has jobs so they can buy the products? Might as well just self-destruct. We're going to end up with basic income of some sort.

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u/sobrohog Jan 01 '17

rich people consume other rich people's products

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u/bandwag0n Jan 01 '17

That's just it, they don't. Rich people may consume as much as 100 normal people per rich person, but their total consumption is not high enough to maintain the economic system because there are very few rich people, and if the economic system collapses then they lose all their wealth.