This. Before we worry about how much work there is left, we have to define what work is "to be done." We're already at a point where an incredible amount of work done isn't strictly "necessary." It's not growing food, it's not making clothing, it's not building houses, or providing other basic needs and comforts...
How many man-hours go into various parts of the advertising distribution chain? Though a certain fraction of that energy goes to connecting people with goods and services they might find valuable, most of it goes into shifting numbers around for people that already don't personally have to worry about money.
We don't need to find endless ways for people to spin wheels, but as long as we're worried about "jobs," we will. We just need to find the social structures to provide people with basic needs and reserve "work" for things that are vital to society or truly inspired.
> We just need to find the social structures to provide people with basic needs and reserve "work" for things that are vital to society or truly inspired.
Sure it’s a tall order but we’re not even trying (in a broader collective sense, I know there are people doing good work). We’re still voting for billionaires rights.
> How many man-hours go into various parts of the advertising distribution chain?
Not that much. AI is already heavily automating advertising and has been for a long time. And a lot of activity that was previously exposed to untargeted passive advertising - like TV - has shifted to mediums that don't have any, like Netflix (for most subscribers).
And as you note, advertising isn't useless. It's how people find out about things they didn't know they wanted.
Alphabet and Meta, two of the largest firms to ever exist by market capitalization, revenues and profits, are largely sustained by their online advertisement products.
I don't think your assessment that this is mostly automated stands in the face of the number of man-hours both of these companies purchase each year.
But their ad tech/sales departments are relatively small compared to the whole company. Most Alphabet/Meta employees are subsidized by ads, not working on them directly.
And many of them have the pleasure of working on projects that will never see the light of day and have roughly epsilon chance of positively impacting anyone! One golden goose that changed the world and legions of people spinning wheels. What a system!
How many man-hours go into various parts of the advertising distribution chain? Though a certain fraction of that energy goes to connecting people with goods and services they might find valuable, most of it goes into shifting numbers around for people that already don't personally have to worry about money.
We don't need to find endless ways for people to spin wheels, but as long as we're worried about "jobs," we will. We just need to find the social structures to provide people with basic needs and reserve "work" for things that are vital to society or truly inspired.