Ep 130 Line Goes Mad w/ Jason Smith
This Wreckage
Sean KB and AP Andy
4.2 • 980 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2021
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Political economist Jason Smith, (@profitratedown) author of 'Smart Machines and Service Work: Automation in and Age of Stagnation', joins Sean to give us all an update on how that dang line is doing.
What is the source of all of America's various morbid symptoms the last 12 to 40 years? How can it be that a handful of tech companies (the FAANGS) can seem to be so profitable when the 'real economy' is so depressed? What does all this mean for a return to social democratic, non-revolutionary politics in the capitalist core? And if you've ever wondered just why all the jobs, including perhaps your own, as so shitty these days, we ask: what is service work, really, and how does it fit into the schema of capitalist production. Finally, what is the future of work?
Bonus episode on the end of Trump and the GameStop debacle out on Friday!
Jason's book: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/S/bo70564105.html
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Closing song: Daisy Chainsaw - Love your money
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody and welcome to the Antifada. I'm Sean K B and I'm here with a solo episode today. My two compatriots are both |
| 0:17.2 | actually right now at the Gamergate Rebellion. They're Manning the Barricades |
| 0:22.1 | on behalf of retail investors |
| 0:24.3 | everywhere. So that's where Jamie and Andy are. But in order to help me with this |
| 0:29.0 | episode I have an excellent guest. I have political economist Jason Smith, the author of smart machines and service work, |
| 0:38.1 | automation in the age of stagnation. Jason Smith, what's up man? |
| 0:42.2 | Doing well from California. |
| 0:45.0 | Yeah, nice to be here with you. |
| 0:48.0 | Yeah, no, likewise, I kind of wish I was there with you. |
| 0:51.0 | The snow is coming. We're going to have like two or three days. |
| 0:55.0 | Yeah, I read about that. Yeah, it rained here. It rains once a year here in Los Angeles and that happened on Thursday. So I think it's 11 months of sunshine and beaches for us from now on. |
| 1:08.1 | So I've heard rumors that the first, the only day of the year it rains in Los Angeles there's like a |
| 1:15.5 | 150% increase in car accidents because nobody can drive in the rain there. |
| 1:20.1 | Yeah exactly exactly people forget that know, like the car has brakes or what have you. So, yeah, I think it's true. I think it's true. I'll just maybe stay off those roads, you know, for a couple of days, but I'm not planning on doing much in the snow to be |
| 1:35.0 | honest but I'm happy it's here I'm not sure if it's a climate thing or just a weather |
| 1:39.1 | thing but I've been missing the snow the last couple of years so we're back. |
| 1:43.2 | Yeah I think it doesn't snow that often in New York I guess right? |
| 1:45.6 | Like I know I was an upstate New York at one point in my life and it snowed like relentlessly |
| 1:49.8 | for about eight or nine months and so I just assume that's what happens in New York City but I guess not. |
| 1:54.0 | I mean I'm not sure how much of this is like what you call it the Mandela effect or how much of it is is reality but I feel like when I was a kid it |
| 2:06.2 | used to snow a lot more I mean what are we like a Celsius higher than average at |
| 2:10.5 | this point right across the globe so that might be affecting it but also to of |
... |
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