AI in the Doctor's Office

[Ken]

The industrial revolution also made us into a vastly wealthier society so there are just way more resources to go around even if the robber barons skim off more than their share.

This is the argument free-traders made that, sure, your local mom & pop stores went out of business, and there aren't good jobs anymore, but at least you can buy cheaper stuff at Wal-Mart...

... until the covid pandemic happened, inflation spiralled out of control, and now stuff at Wal-Mart is (a) poor quality and (b) not even that cheap.

In the 19th Century the majority of American workers toiled long hours for near slave wages, had no weekends, health care, any hope of retirement, lived in shacks or crowded tenements , often could not afford food or clothing, and couldn't afford to send their children to school. Many died and early death from preventable diseases and the child mortality rate approached 50%.

Today none of those things are true. And none of that has anything to do with Wal-Mart.