Nah there's definitely another option and that's to abolish capitalism.
Did you know that with the automation tech from 10 years ago the world could already have 70% unemployed and yet produce western middle-class living standards for absolutely everyone? The reason it's not done is not that investing in automation doesn't have a gigantic ROI, it's that it's too long-term for capital to care. Also we don't want that kind of power in the hands of capitalists anyway but that's another story. The Diamond Age it's called, I think.
The reason it’s not done is not that investing in automation doesn’t have a gigantic ROI, it’s that it’s too long-term for capital to care.
No one said anything about automation. We were talking about a human being switching for one operating system to another and learning a new tool/program that will save them money in the long run, versus being short-sighted, or as they used to say, "penny-wise, and pound foolish".
Your position, as I understood it, was that it should never be done because it's not cost beneficial, it's cost prohibited. I was trying to get a qualifier from you of if you thought that was true for just short-term gains, or both short-term and long-term gains.
I explained why it's not done. I'm not saying that the system is good.
The existing short-term and long-term incentive structure is what it is. That's the material conditions we're dealing with. Don't like them? Become a revolutionary, but don't stand there and pretend they don't exist as if users are frictionless, spherical cows floating in platonic space.
Ok I'll humour you. If the material conditions aren't as I described them to be, then what are they, in your opinion? What's the cause? Why aren't companies rushing to switch over their operations?