I suspect that the reason might be that the Industrial Revolution happened over 200 years ago. That provides a lot of time for 97% of jobs to progressively disappear without disrupting society too much (except for all the revolutions and world wars). That would be quite different than if AI caused any significant percentage of jobs to disappear in a much shorter period of time.

Sure, but then we at least don't have the ultra wealthy coming up with ways to make everyone elses lives worse.

If we took Elon Musk's money away and simply burnt it, that would still be a net win for society as a whole.

It would benefit the people you are calling "unproductive things". That's basically the point.

Except that it does declare rich people's gains more important than poor people's lives.

The purpose of a system is what it does.

Does feeling anger count? If so, then Google search is nailing that!

I'm not sure that's actually all that relevant. Political power and social class are much more determined by the wealth distribution within a society than they are by the worldwide wealth distribution.

It is and it isn't. Relative wealth within society has consequences regardless of absolute wealth. But globally power is absolutely shaped by wealth distribution as well, as wealth distribution is influenced by power relations too.

Political power and social class don't feed hungry people.

Overeating now kills more people than hunger, it just flipped somewhat recently.

Yet both can be at alarmingly high rates at the same time, it's not like one cancels the other out

This story is literally about global wealth.

And you talked about income, not wealth. The problem is that your comment is simply not relevant.

If that's the case, then why do we live in this late capitalist hell hole? Any technology that gets developed will be used for its worst, most dehumanizing purpose possible. That's just the reality of the shity society we live in.

Do you know that there are groups of people around the world who feel similar to you and choose to go and live in smaller communities abstaining from the trappings of the modern world? They live in self built houses, have wells/streams for their own water, grow their own food. I don't believe they're entirely self sufficient or insulated from the outside world, but they're close.

I don't understand why people who seem to hate the modern world so much continue to live in it, and complain on the internet, when they have the option to live differently.

That's tough to do without time and money. Which is something we certainly won't have if the decent jobs get automated out of existence.

That sounds like it's basically the grocery equivalent of the boot theory of poverty. Poor people have to pay more in the long run because they can't afford to buy in bulk.

It’s slightly different for groceries. I am not poor but I also don’t want to buy perishables in bulk. I can choose to buy one week’s worth of lettuce to be eaten in a week, but by the seventh day the lettuce has visibly degraded. I want fresher produce, so I am willing to buy smaller amounts every two days.

When they say "groceries" they're not just referring to fresh produce but also to things like cereal, dried goods, canned goods, or other foods you might find at a dollar store. Though some of these stores like Dollar General do also stock fresh foods like eggs, meat, dairy, and produce.

This is exactly right and the reason that Costco shoppers are un-intuitively among the richest groups in the country (average $125,000 household income).

Costco is great for wealthy families, less so for less wealthy. People living in small apartments have no place to put 36 rolls of paper towels and 12 jars of pasta sauce.

Having a large home is a prerequisite for shopping at Costco.

We live in an apartment but use Costco to stock our freezer with meat and seafood. We also use it for gas, cat litter, eggs, and cheese (lasts a long time). Basically for perishables that only need to be stored so long.

Which is great, but you receive a fraction of the benefit wealthy households do.

They don't even build Costco in close proximity to poor people.

In addition to the other comment about perishables, storage space is another meaningful limiting factor that can vary with income level. Both the raw volume of available storage and the quality of the storage on things like temperature control, energy usage, accessibility, etc