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Comment by shoover | Hacker News Reader

> If anything, in 20 years, we could witness the end of capitalism as we know it because we can produce more with less employment, assuming current tech trends continue.

I have to wonder if a capitalist like Trump can be of much help with such a transition.

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Exactly, Trump supporters are going to be really disappointed

"We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet,” Trump said. "We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way."[1]

Trump thinks that talking to Bill Gates will allow him to "close that Internet up". This guy hasn't got a clue about technology.

The issues facing basically the entire global economy are extremely daunting. Our system of capitalism is based around increasing population and GDP leading to increasing levels of prosperity over time. What happens when you can automate large sectors of the economy, and you literally don't need that many people to sustain economic growth?[2]

[1] http://fortune.com/2015/12/08/donald-trump-bill-gates-intern...

[2] One estimate puts 47% of the economy at risk of automation within 20 years: http://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2016/01/27/will-ro...

China and North Korea do a pretty good job of "closing that Internet up", all without the help of Bill Gates.

While I doubt Bill Gates would be willing to help with this endevour, it's not inconceivable that someone else will indeed be willing.

I was using that quote as an example of how unsuited Trump would be with dealing with the issue of technological unemployment (frankly, I don't think any political leader would be capable of dealing with it effectively, as no political leader deals with longer term problems, at least not in the western world). I'm not sure you want to comparing the US to China or North Korea. Yes, it's technically possible to Balkanise the Internet to attempt to control the free flow of information, but this would be utterly disastrous for the US economy.

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