Commenters dispute essay's 'short term' framing of industrial decline
4 Sep 17 3:09 PM · 9d ago · 8 comments · 1 source · development 4 of 4
Commenters pointed to Gary, Detroit, and Toledo as regions that never recovered from deindustrialization decades later, challenging the essay's suggestion that such disruption is short-lived, while others countered that cities recover over longer historical horizons even if individuals do not benefit.
“"Short term" being rather loosely used? Most industrial regions have never recovered.”
SoftTalkerDeepMind Institute AI policy think tank
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> Amid this uncertainty, there are at least a few reasons for hope that society can better manage a disruptive technological shock this time around. In the past, policymakers were limited by weaker and less knowledgeable institutions than we have today. Social science has made strides in understanding how technological shocks unfold and how to…
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Not saying these places will universally recover, or even any of them will. There are plenty of secular trends pushing industry to other places. I do think decades is rightly considered short term for city history, though. At various periods in Paris, it's been laid to siege by viking hordes, had its population cut in half by Black Plaque, been…
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I think this is a very interesting topic to discuss, and its a shame there is not more detail about how each policy is implemented, or how they might interact with the many other compounding issues we are dealing with.I would love an opportunity to take my pet ideas and tune them for better scores. To take the data and run it through the AI again…
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Those places aren’t isolated though. Many of their residents (and especially their children) have left and found opportunities in other parts of the country.Economists tend to prefer policies that help people, not places. Gary, Indiana just doesn’t have any geographical advantages that make it competitive.I think, if anything, the mistake was to…
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> Yet in the short term, significant transformations have often also produced lower wages for many, hollowed out regional economies, and deepened inequality."Short term" being rather loosely used? Most industrial regions have never recovered. Look at Gary Indiana, Detroit and surrounding towns, Toledo, other regions that were dependant on…
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It's a multifactorial problem. The decline of heavy manufacturing was one cause of economic stagnation in Detroit. But the failed progressive social policies and lack of effective law enforcement didn't help either. Businesses are hesitant to expand in areas where they can't find reliable employees and where their property isn't secure.
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Embodied robots is the most significant threat imo. Capital can be taxed but for now we have few general policy frameworks for the "who gets to walk and drive on the street" question
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We are moving closer to the future Marx envisioned as a utopia—not through a workers’ revolution, but through capitalist productivity.
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