In the context of this chronicle of’Live Action I decided to talk to you about technological progress. It’s a bit related to everything we hear about the benefits of the famous participatory economy. In any case, benefits for employers and the elite who governs us. I decided to go there with a philosophical question today and ask you the following question : "Is our society progressing ? Is humanity progressing ? ». At first glance, we all want to answer "Well yes, we are now able to go to the moon, to cure cancer, we have hybrid vehicles ”. But if you scratch a little and decide to go a little further, is technological progress necessarily progress for humanity as a whole ? Because we born will not lie, who, in our society, has the technology ? Before it hits Wal-Mart shelves as a consumer product, who benefits from this technology ? The answer is very simple, she belongs to the wealthy class, the one who sends us memos at our workplaces to say that there will be less services for employees, the one who prefers to have a machine to replace cashiers in your grocery store or at McDonalds around the corner. Obviously for them, technological progress is useful : Ways to Cut Production Costs Are Found. Short, technology will always benefit first and foremost the wealthy and thex bourgeois of our society. You could call it class progress.

Offer a useful service or get rich?

If we start from the base, according to you, what is the purpose of a good capitalist ? Offer a quality service or product useful to humanity ? Offer quality jobs to its employees ? Non… The first goal of a capitalist is to get rich, to get rich, to fill your pockets. Based on this principle, obviously, his primary goal will be to cut his business expenses. By a strange coincidence, one of the main expenses of any business is workforce or if you prefer Newspeak : Human resources. If we can cut employees and replace them with robots, cheaper computers or other machines, what do you think the capitalist is going to want to do ? Ask the question, it's a bit respond… So, who benefits from technology in our wonderful system ? To the boss who saves production costs or to the employee who will be put in unemployment, because replaced by a robot ? It's the same principle as when a boss pays you for a cell phone, especially don't think he does it for your well-being : he knows very well that like that, you will be reachable 24 hours a day 24 and that, it suits him a lot more. It's the same with the so-called participatory economy like Uber and AirBnB. If we can get around the laws in force and save money by saying it's participatory, any capitalist will jump at the chance. Who will benefit ? To the drivers of taxi who pay their licence to do the same job as an Uber ? To the neighbors of AirBnB who will see their rent increase because its block has almost become a hotel ? Sure, non, only to the people who are going to get rich with these new technologies. Sure, if all these technologies belonged to the working class, you could say that humanity is progressing, that it’s progress for everyone to replace an ultra repetitive task with robots and thus, everyone has less work to do. But unfortunately, this is not how our society works.

Consumption and environment

A good capitalist, to get even richer, must always produce more and expand its market. How good, elite-funded studies and research are constantly trying to try to produce more and at a lower cost. This is where we come the phenomenon of overproduction. Since I am young, we are taught virtuously that we must not overconsume for the good of the planet. But what is the cause of this overconsumption ? Sure, it is the overproduction of the capitalists. They produce all kinds of kids who are worthless and who have no use in order to always get rich. Do you think the ownerstole of Dollarama has in mind the well-being of the planet when it fill his cheap junk shelves which he knows very well that the lifespan does not exceed 6 month ? Of course not, he only thinks ofx juicy profits that he will be able to put in the pockets and those of the other shareholders and that's it. Meanwhile, we blame the consumer, but we never don't blame the producer, the capitalist behind useless objects like fidget spinners. It’s always the buyer (so generally the working class) the problem and not the one who sells and markets shit products. Technology allows us to produce more at the expense of resources, produce more poor quality products, for one purpose : the one to enrich the employers. So I ask the question again, who benefits from technology ?

A question of Marketing

To sell all these useless kids, the capitalist invented a new science : Marketing. Today, universities are overflowing with research chairs whose aim is to deepen this pseudoscience that we could define by this expression : "The art of creating an artificial need in the mind of the consumer in order to make him buy something". Therefore, it makes our company overflowing with advertising everywhere to sell us something : on TV, in the newspapers, on the radio, in the streets, in the toilet, on our phones, on the Internet, at school, the job, etc. We create images of Mark to say that such a company is ethical because it gives money to the cause of sick children or to that of mental health. Bell cause for cause, what does that tell you ? The company that crunched at the door full of operators in Montreal to relocate its services at a lower cost. What a beautiful ethical company. All thanks to marketing. All that energy spent trying to sell junk like a vulgar peddler. Imagine if this research was more about creating better behavior in humans. We could in particular align research on issues like eliminating the culture of rape or racism. But no, we prefer to sell you auto insurance or an RRSP, it pays more for the capitalist. That brings me to a question : Who Benefits from Advances in Marketing ?

Sure, overproducing and inventing false needs, it is not yet enough to sufficiently enrich our good capitalist leaders. So they used technology to invent another concept : the one planned obsolescence. Does that remind you of something ? Planned obsolescence, is when a capitalist designs a consumer product to make sure it breaks after a certain time. Like that, well, no choice to buy another. If not, how is it explained that my parents have a fridge that dates from 40 years and that I never could in keep a nine over five ? This must be technological progress, right ? Seriously, technology has never been so advanced and we are led to believe that our fridges, our cars, our bulbs and most of the products we have now last less ? Yet this is what the capitalists do. Let's put ourselves in the shoes of the owner of the company Frigidaire and think for a moment. Yeah, I know, it’s not the most enjoyable is it… So, you are shareholders of the company Frigidaire, what is best for you : 1- Produce good quality refrigerators that will last a minimum 20 years or 2- Producing a lower quality refrigerator, which will therefore cost you less to produce, and that this one has a lifespan of 8 years ? You think, which will bring you more money ? The first one you will sell only once in 20 years or the one that you will be able to sell once and that after eight years, you will be able to resell a second ? Is it a conspiracy theory to think that the capitalists can see things as the number choice 2 ? This brings me to ask the question again : Whose profite technological progress ?

Big Brother and safe drift

Which brings me to safety technologies. Because by creating social inequalities like the capitalists do, it forces them to develop all kinds of technologies to monitor their employees or the plebs in general or even control the movements of revolt of those they crush. This is why we are witnessing a technological boom in the security technology world.. Surveillance cameras to avoid being robbed, or better yet, to be able to monitor its employees remotely. Anti-theft systems in stores. Alarm systems everywhere. Nuclear weapons to protect its privileges against the interests of other countries. Paramilitary police to intimidate any movement of revolt. Technology computer science in order to track people's consumption habits. Fleas that can be embedded under the skin of employees. The list is extremely long, but the conclusion remains the same. Who benefits from all these technological developments, if it’s only capitalists, to the rich and the bourgeois of our society. Our society will progress the day when these technologies will belong to the people and will serve the interests of all and not only the interests of a privileged few. Technology Will Be Useful Once In The Hands Of The Working Class, but for now, she only to contribute to increase the balance of power of the dominant class at the bottom of the pyramid.