CONCEPT
The Factory Owner's Arithmetic
The specific calculation that governs every deployment decision in a competitive market — if five workers can do the work of one hundred, why not just have five? — and the structural reason moral resistance to it fails in the absence of institutional constraint.
The factory owner's arithmetic is the calculation that Ure's framework endorsed and that every subsequent boardroom has been compelled to perform. If productivity gains of factor N are available through mechanization, the enterprise that captures them gains a
competitive advantage proportional to N. The enterprise that fails to capture them faces competitive disadvantage of the same magnitude. In an efficient market, the first enterprise punishes the second. Over time, the second either adopts the mechanization or exits the market. This dynamic operates regardless of individual decision-makers' preferences. An enterprise leader who chooses to preserve headcount for moral reasons is not performing an act of charity — she is performing an act of competitive sabotage, subsidizing an inefficiency her competitors will not subsidize, and the market will eventually punish her for it. Ure saw this clearly and celebrated it.
You On AI reports a contemporary boardroom asking the same question and struggles