More Robots Taking Jobs

[tablemtn]

I don't necessarily have one. Depending on how much the labor force contracts, we may need to rethink our policies altogether. The old Milton Friedman/et. al. idea of an annual "national income" or a "negative income tax" given to every citizen every year might come back in style.

So, everyone would get a lump sum of something like $15,000 or $20,000 to apply against taxes owed, and any amount greater than taxes owed would be given as unrestricted cash.

[Nepenthe]

Budweiser is a dreadful excuse for "beer."

I support American craft beer brewers, not obnoxious multinationals producing a ****-colored near beer.

[bobtn]

Never happen, tablemtn. Its going to come down to which people choose to evolve. 1st world nations cannot keep third world jobs.

[illdblli]

tablemtn;

do you have anything besides wishful thinking to support the idea that your concept could ever work in any circumstances at all?

do you realize that moneys value is solely dependent on how much there is - creating more out of thin air and giving it away for free simply devalues the money supply, effectively taking away just as much money as you made. you cannot create resources, which is what money represents the trade of, out of thin air and wishful thinking.

but hey while we're all talking BS why not just make-believe that whatever we want to happen will happen

Budweiser is a dreadful excuse for "beer."

I support American craft beer brewers, not obnoxious multinationals producing a ****-colored near beer.

Many people drink budweiser, a product which sells that much is a successful product, so why rage about it? it's not going anywhere. and by the way it's americans who import budweiser, americans who outsource jobs, etc. and if you wanted to survive and where put in the position of CEO and either report a loss to your company, or fire the expensive american workers and outsource cheaper ones, you either don't feed your family and let someone else do it, or feed your family and do it. either way it gets done. too often people are frustrated with their own and neighbors' morals, not realizing that it's not anyones fault, just a matter of survival, and the only way to 'change things' is to innovate and push forward technologically. the continuous dismay and pouting people give to the way things are is a complete waste of time and everyones lifespan. this was how it was at my old job every single day. people in the lunch room bickering about the economy, instead of intelligently realizing that their bickering does nothing but spread fear and unhappiness to others. can you imagine what would have happened if the topic in lunchrooms everywhere shifted from pointless babble to interesting and stimulating discussion - furthering peoples pool of knowledge and allowing them to innovate and make better decisions in their lives and the workplace?

[nr5667]

For much of history, the uneducated masses have been allowed to eke out a living performing menial jobs - now that robots and computers can do them, how are we going to employ the majority of our population that has suddenly become useless?

[tablemtn]

do you have anything besides wishful thinking to support the idea that your concept could ever work in any circumstances at all?

It's hardly my idea; a lot of research and theoretical work has been done over the decades into the possible contours of a negative-income tax.

Inflation is actually not a major concern with such a system, since it tends to be redistributionist in nature rather than an expansionary force on the underlying money supply.

If you want to read a lengthier proposal for a modified Friedmanite negative-income system called the "UBI-FIT" (Universal basic income/flat-tax), here is a report based on a speech by an Austrian economist from 2006:

Free enterprise without poverty (http://www.uni-graz.at/~parncutt/BIFT2.html - broken link)

[Nepenthe]

Originally Posted by illdblli

Many people drink budweiser, a product which sells that much is a successful product, so why rage about it? it's not going anywhere.

I'm encouraged by the fact that craft beer has had double-digit annual gains for several years now, while BMC (bud miller coors) have been gradually decreasing. I myself have converted quite a few beer drinkers.

I know a couple of brewers, notably the St. Arnold guys and the Rahr guys, and I'll always choose these products over BMC, because they're produced by real people who are enthusiastic about what they do. The American Craft Beer Industry is a bastion of creativity and strong work ethic, and is reaping the rewards.

BMC survives through promoting ignorance, asinine and pervasive advertising, and lovely tactics like this: InBev tries to quash Texas craft beer bill in the state Senate, allowing small brewers to sell beer at the end of brewery tours, because it "discriminates" against Big Beer

[Nepenthe]

Originally Posted by Moth

Because their IQ is 0 i.e. they have no IQ.

Were we to reach a point where they could do something like that, reproduction for all intents and purposes, then it would be time to pull the plug.

I think it's an inevitable conclusion: Robot That Can Learn, Think And Act By Itself

[Lycanmaster]

The book "End of Work" by Jeremy Rifkin. It has already predicted from quite some time, and looks like it is already coming to fruition to varying degrees.