The answer to the coming 'Robot Revolution'? Universal Basic Income!

[yallerdawg]

With an impending robot revolution expected to leave a trail of unemployment in its wake, some Silicon Valley tech leaders think they have a remedy to a future with fewer jobs — free money for all.

It’s called universal basic income, a radical concept that’s picking up steam as a way to provide all Americans with a minimum level of economic security. The idea is expensive and controversial — it guarantees cash for everyone, regardless of income level or employment status. But prominent tech leaders from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to Sam Altman, president of Mountain View-based startup accelerator Y Combinator, are proponents.

“We should make it so no one is worried about how they’re going to pay for a place to live, no one has to worry about how they’re going to have enough to eat,” Altman said in a recent speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. “Just give people enough money to have a reasonable quality of life.”

*****

That means a mother living on the poverty line would get the same amount of free cash as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Widerquist said. But Zuckerberg’s taxes would go up, canceling out his basic income payment.

*****

Much more at: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20170520/NEWS/170529965

[bagelsforbreakfast]

1. [phone] n/m

[Herb Spence]

2. This is why we deserve to be laughed at sometimes

These kinds of ideas are Utopian & simple-minded. There are simple realities of the human condition which we ignore at our peril. You can’t possibly guarantee that no one will go hungry or be out of a place to live, because some people are simply self-destructive & will not do well for themselves even if you hand them a guaranteed check every week. Still others will choose not to work, or to work less than they otherwise would, because they’re given a free sum of money each week. In fact many people would react like that. It’s a simple fact; whatever amount is guaranteed each week will be factored into decisions to work; if I’m guaranteed $300/week, then a job offering me $500/week will instead be looked at as offering only $200/week. People would choose to work less, productivity will drop, less to go around, we’re all poorer, government would eventually resort to rationing. What we need to fight for is genuine socialism. Socialize the means of production. Anything less is just messing up the free enterprise system more & making the working class poorer.

[yallerdawg]

3. "Utopian and simple-minded?"

You do understand that technology, automation and robotics are changing the need for labor - the need for us.

We have fewer people in manufacturing, but produce more than ever!

You have a very pessimistic, capitalistic-oriented outlook on what people do.

A basic income is where we start. You think it is human nature to not want more?

Welcome to Democratic Underground?

[Herb Spence]

4. Technophobes are the new Luddites

Tech & automation is changing the kinds of labor demanded; but it’s not diminishing the demand for labor as such. People who worry about the economic effects of labor-saving technology are falling into the same kind of fallacy as the Luddites hundreds of years ago. The specific errors boil down to: thinking of “jobs” as ends in & of themselves, as if work is performed for its own sake; and thinking as if there is a fixed, finite number of jobs to be done. In truth, work is a means to an end (consumption), & so long as there are human wants & needs as yet unsatisfied (i.e., for the duration of human existence) there is work to be done, jobs to be had.
I don’t have a pessimistic outlook at all (I don’t know what you mean by “capitalistic” outlook; I don’t subscribe to polylogism). I have an educated & realistic outlook. People respond to incentives. When you change the incentive structure, you will affect behavioral outcomes. Obviously not everyone responds the same way. But if you’re gonna try to deny that if everyone is given a guaranteed “basic income” many would respond by working less or perhaps not at all, then you’re engaged in magical thinking & you’re only going to hurt our movement.

[yallerdawg]

5. You need to freshen up your education.

We are being replaced at ever-accelerating rates.

The owners and financiers ( see "income inequality" ) are reaping all the benefits.

It has all stagnated because production is equal to the ability to pay for consumption.

Are you not aware of the inevitable failings of the capitalist system?