In our capitalist politico-economic system, the prime directive enshrined in law is to maximize profit for the shareholders, and NOT to optimize the benefits for all stakeholders, inclusive of workers, customers, communities and our planet. These entities are treated as externalities so as to privatize the gains and eco-socialize the losses.
In this system, workers are seen as a cost (a disutility) and if the capitalists can automate what workers do, and thus bring the cost of “labour” to zero, they would do so readily so as to maximize profit gains. Also having a bumper stock of unemployed people keeps the price of labour low (according to market supply-demand principles), hence the manufacturing of poverty and economic refugees, which can be stopped in a heartbeat if there is the local and global political will to end “wars of life-destabilizations” within and without.
