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Comment by ModernMech | Hacker News Reader

If everything is automated then where do people work?

If only some things are automated, then yes those places will have an advantage when it comes to labor costs, but they will use it to pad their profit margin.

Factory X employs humans ands sells widgets for $100, but their costs are $90, so profit is $10.

Factory Y is automated and they have costs of $10. Do they sell their widget at $30, thus earning a handsome profit of $20? No, they charge $90 and earn an obscene profit of $80. The worker gets screwed, the shareholders get richer.

This whole thing only works if workers have ownership in the corporation, but that's gasp socialism and we can't have that.

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the same places they work now, displacing foreign workers shouldn’t effect American workers?

if the goods are made and exported from American factories the owners of those factories will be increasing the local, state and federal tax bases, how is that not an improvement over offshoring production?

workers are currently being screwed by globalist companies offshoring production and also using that as a way to offshore profits also, i doubt any workers will shed tears if that stops.

socialism as you described is fine, not sure how its relevant in this case, its perfectly legal to start coops and they exist even in the tech world, most people dont seek them out and it appears they underperform their peers, where are all the major coop tech companies?

> “It's gonna be nice if we can finally get American companies to actually support America and pay citizens what they're worth.”

Posters are skeptical because prices will raise across the board for these good. You ask:

> “what if they are largely automated”

If that’s the case, and they work where they work now as you say, then Americans will just get poorer as things become more expensive due to tariffs. The factory owner is keeps all the protectionist profits. Maybe some of that goes back into the tax base but we know these types are good at paying 0% taxes.

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. That’s why socialism is relevant, because that’s the system under which this idea at a national scale actually helps workers, whereas this idea under capitalism helps mainly capitalists. Which is why I’m so confused because you keep talking about workers in your post, but that’s not who this is for.

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