Workers are paid to build the technology that renders them redundant

Evidence

We can dispel the myth that under capitalism technological progress serves the primary function of fulfilling our human needs. Machines and technology are not at the service of the workers but turn into their nemeses. Workers are paid to produce technology that will render them redundant and replace them in many functions. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 246

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay: workers paid to dig their own graves — the self-replacing laborer as a defining paradox of capital.
• XREF: connects to: Workers build the very technology that will replace them. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 246; Capitalist growth advances through labor-saving technology that destroys jobs — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 245; Capitalist accumulation itself systematically produces a redundant working population — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 243 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Workers build the very technology that will replace them. #corroborates (1.00) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 246
• Capitalist growth advances through labor-saving technology that destroys jobs #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 245
• AI reduces job quality by devaluing human labor. #exemplifies (0.80) — Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, The AI Con- How to Fight Big Tech’s…, 126
• Capitalist accumulation itself systematically produces a redundant working population #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 243
• Technology is a figure for dead labor’s alienated counterfinality #qualifies (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 125