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Comment by 0c3ca83 | Hacker News Reader

Today, if sanitation workers go on strike, they rapidly end up with a negotiated settlement. If we had self driving garbage trucks that didn't need them, what political leverage would they have? The same too goes for other industries.

If police have advanced surveillance technology and drones, even violent protest becomes very hard.

What pressure is there to cater to people who are powerless dead weight on the economy?

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Driving isn't the hard part or expensive part of a garbage truck. Sanitation workers have to hoist haphazardly-placed and badly-packed garbage cans. Some municipalities have cans that can be lifted by arms on the truck, though many don't, and even where they exist not everybody uses them.

I guess it depends on the city and type of garbage. In the last two large cities I've lived in, the garbage trucks are staffed/driven by one person, and pickup is a robotic arm that picks up the container and dumps it into the top. The truck and drive ignore non-standard containers.

Is there an economy in absence of those people’s wellbeing?

If AI works out, possibly. The entities involved in commerce can be automated, with companies autonomously serving the needs of other companies.

I know some people who are investing based on the expectation of this being the future.

Voting is still a thing. You still have to convince people that just voting for what they want is less important than carefully considering the affect their votes will have on billionaires.

How long will it remain a thing when the voters have no leverage? King Louis didn't set up the French Republic out of the goodness of his heart. He set it up by reducing the amount of weight carried by his neck.

Voting happens because economic power implies political power. People must be kept satisfied for things to keep running.

If that deal gets upended, I don't think the economic dead weight will be treated well.

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