No. The horses were made redundant and no longer exist in such quantities
So, uh, maybe don't dwell on that too much.
Actually, dwell on that a lot. It's probably the only instructive example.
The rich and powerful only suffer us because they need us. They cannot assemble every lead painted doodad by their own hands. If they could, they never would have hired anyone. So what happens when they no longer need as many people?
Society is already far too constructed around catching some of the wealth that just spills off of the people who own it, by being in their orbit. That activity is not actually productive, but since the only people with money are the ones that have a lot of it (K shaped economy), there's just not enough wealth left in the bottom part of the market to support anything else.
There are more horses today than ever... Oxen got the short end of the deal - almost nobody uses oxen even though historically they were the backbone labor of the farm, while the horse was for the right.
The only data I can find ignores the majority of horses today - recreational riders. If you can find a better citation I'd stand corrected, but everything I can find counts race horses and horses used for farming.
So long as they can keep us fighting amongst ourselves in meaningless culture wars. If there is ever a broad alignment of populists spanning left to right, it could get spicy.
The phrase "sent to the glue factory" comes from this era where many horses made redundant were sent to be slaughtered for meat or raw materials.
zug_zug · · focus · HN ↗
There’s no quick answers, but intuitively I think we all get that the % of jobs not doable by AI and robotics approaches 0 over time.
commandlinefan · · focus · HN ↗
mrguyorama · · focus · HN ↗
So, uh, maybe don't dwell on that too much.
Actually, dwell on that a lot. It's probably the only instructive example.
The rich and powerful only suffer us because they need us. They cannot assemble every lead painted doodad by their own hands. If they could, they never would have hired anyone. So what happens when they no longer need as many people?
Society is already far too constructed around catching some of the wealth that just spills off of the people who own it, by being in their orbit. That activity is not actually productive, but since the only people with money are the ones that have a lot of it (K shaped economy), there's just not enough wealth left in the bottom part of the market to support anything else.
bluGill · · focus · HN ↗
handedness · · focus · HN ↗
The global horse population peaked in the 1910s.
bluGill · · focus · HN ↗
OroPla · · focus · HN ↗
Horse ownership isn't what it used to be, but the horse population seems fine.
rootusrootus · · focus · HN ↗
Well that and there are more guns than people and if a million people come for you then there is no army that will be able to save you.
OroPla · · focus · HN ↗
andruby · · focus · HN ↗
rootusrootus · · focus · HN ↗
Hamuko · · focus · HN ↗
reasonableklout · · focus · HN ↗