on October 30, 2025, 13:15:17, in reply to "Right...but if our economy and our personal safety and solitude are derived..."
Previous Message
...from your ability to provide things for yourself and your family (housing, comforts, food, etc)...
How does the guy who wants to sit on his ass and play videogames get worth? I guess that happens now but are we talking about some type of guaranteed basic income?
I just don't understand how that works. Everything I've seen proposed is nowhere near enough to support yourself or a family...yet we're simultaneously hollowing out the ability for you to provide via your labor?
It's dystopian. Previous Message
I've thought about that a good deal recently too. And came to the conclusion that even though the answer is most likely that we shouldn't... It feels like an inevitability. Which is what sent me down the path of "what does the future look like for our children".
I think there is a sweet spot of technology and AI that frees much of mankind from day to day/manual labor, allowing those with the ability the freedom to pursue their passion. For some, that passion may be sitting on the couch, drinking soda, playing video games. For others, the pursuit of expanding mankind into space.
I am largely just fearful of how society reacts to all of that, and what do I need to do today to put my family into a position where they will have resources when they are needed? Previous Message
...we are a boutique vendor and part of the process of production is built into the brand equity.
No one cares if Tanqueray or Beefeater are made and packaged in some massively industrial facility by a cog worker.
For a small producer like ourselves a huge part of our equity is a "craft" premiumization where the who and where of production are actually important. Our marketing and sales group sends us production distillers out to accounts because meeting us makes the sale easier. "Made by San Franciscans for San Franciscans" actually kinda works on our scale.
You'd probably be able to move production and increase margins (although our margin is currently 54%) to an industrial distillery somewhere in the midwest but I'm near certain it'd all but kill our brand. The product is excellent but people are also purchasing a narrative. To my surprise, premiumization in the spirits category is the only sector to see growth over the past few years.
To the other discussion of people wanting to work...its where AI and it's adherents really rub me the wrong way. I think AI is overall detrimental to the value and meaning of labor...and the stock and self-worth that people put into it.
Like they're creating a tool because they hate working and unleashing it on everyone else.
One of those "we know we can...but did we ever consider if we should?" type philosophical questions.
"Iowa women were better than Illini men" - Potomac34
