Kurt Vonnegut on Being Obsolete

Thinking on AI and the effects it will have on unemployment -- Kurt Vonnegut, the great American sci-fi writer, wrote back in 1965 on how we should adjust our attitude to unemployment:

"Americans have long been taught to hate all people who will not or cannot work, to hate even themselves for that. We can thank the vanquished frontier for that piece of common-sense cruelty.  

The time is coming, if it isn’t here now, when it will no longer be common sense. It will simply be cruel."

From the excellent, funny, angry, and hopeful book: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.