Capitalist growth advances through labor-saving technology that destroys jobs

Evidence

Growth and investment are supposed to eliminate unemployment, not create it. Yet the long-run dynamics of real competition belie this myth. To win the war of real competition, capital holders constantly invest in new technologies with the aim of increasing workers’ productivity. Technological innovation and mechanization transform production. As accumulation progresses, more is spent on machines than on human labor. In other words, the economic system progresses through labor-saving technologies. Consider, for instance, the agricultural sector—the source of our food. In the middle of the nineteenth century, agriculture employed about 60 percent of US workers; now it employs only 10 percent of the workforce. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 245

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Workers are paid to build the technology that renders them redundant — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 246; AI reduces job quality by devaluing human labor. — Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, The AI Con- How to Fight Big Tech’s…, 126; Capitalist growth structurally reduces rather than increases employment. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 245 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalist growth structurally reduces rather than increases employment. #corroborates (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 245
• AI reduces job quality by devaluing human labor. #qualifies (0.75) — Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, The AI Con- How to Fight Big Tech’s…, 126
• Full automation is incompatible with capitalist private exploitation of labor #responds-to (0.70) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 197