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The idea behind a basic minimum income is that we simply pay people just for existing. I can't imagine a way where this could be feasible. The people that would be pushed out of work first are those with lower intelligence. They wouldn't have the ability to retrain or move into a more advanced field. Those with higher intelligence would work the skilled jobs, while those with low intelligence do nothing, except eat and breed. That's hardly a sustainable model.
We are already in this situation to some extent. A large portion of the population is out of the workforce and they feel resentful about their inability to prosper and attain material goods on the same level as those who do work. This will only increase with advancement in AI and robots.
We will see large scale riots and civil unrest. We will not have a utopia where people happily do nothing while getting paid only enough to survive.
If not basic income, what would be your solution when there are simply no jobs left for vast numbers of people and they truly have no way to support themselves any longer?
Their Manufacturing survey projected the US will regain the #1 position as the largest global manufacturer and China will fall to 2 nd place by 2020. If realized, whomever is elected in November will take credit.
The conclusion was based primarily on investment in industrial robotics.
If not basic income, what would be your solution when there are simply no jobs left for vast numbers of people and they truly have no way to support themselves any longer?
Well, if we are to pay people to do nothing, they can't have children. That's just a fact of math. In order to receive money, they have to be on some type of birth control, one that can be monitored like depo provera. Their food also needs to be monitored, because it has been proven that those with low intelligence make poor food choices, which leads to health problems, which will ultimately be paid for by the government.
I recognize that this type of government control and monitoring is unsettling to some, but it needs to be emphasized that they will get paid just for existing. They will be dependents of the state and like any dependents, there needs to be firm rules in place.
Well, if we are to pay people to do nothing, they can't have children. That's just a fact of math. In order to receive money, they have to be on some type of birth control, one that can be monitored like depo provera. Their food also needs to be monitored, because it has been proven that those with low intelligence make poor food choices, which leads to health problems, which will ultimately be paid for by the government.
I recognize that this type of government control and monitoring is unsettling to some, but it needs to be emphasized that they will get paid just for existing. They will be dependents of the state and like any dependents, there needs to be firm rules in place.
You are assuming that everyone who will be displaced by robots are "low intelligence/low skilled" workers. That's simply not going to be the case. It's been estimated that some 47% of U.S. jobs could be automated just within the next 20 years. That goes well beyond the low-skilled fast food worker, that cuts into fields like medicine, IT, retail, law, business, finance--virtually every field is susceptible to and will feel the impact of the coming automation.
What will you say to those skilled/white collar/professional workers when they are displaced and there are no jobs for them? Will you tell them that their food choices and reproduction choices will be monitored by the government, too, because they are of "too low intelligence" to manage that themselves?
Don't think you will not be impacted by what is coming. You will. We all will. It's a head-in-the-sand mentality to think it will only be those dumb, unskilled workers who are going to feel the impact.
You are assuming that everyone who will be displaced by robots are "low intelligence/low skilled" workers. That's simply not going to be the case. It's been estimated that some 47% of U.S. jobs could be automated just within the next 20 years. That goes well beyond the low-skilled fast food worker, that cuts into fields like medicine, IT, retail, law, business, finance--virtually every field is susceptible to and will feel the impact of the coming automation.
What will you say to those skilled/white collar/professional workers when they are displaced and there are no jobs for them? Will you tell them that their food choices and reproduction choices will be monitored by the government, too, because they are of "too low intelligence" to manage that themselves?
Don't think you will not be impacted by what is coming. You will. We all will. It's a head-in-the-sand mentality to think it will only be those dumb, unskilled workers who are going to feel the impact.
I wrote that the first to be impacted will be low skill workers. They will be the biggest cause of social strife. The rules need to be put in place before it gets out of hand. Yes, higher skilled workers will also be impacted, but that will not come immediately. And many high skill workers have the ability to retrain, while low skill workers don't.
As I wrote earlier, the industry that I'm in has already been affected by robots and better technology. On the the flip side, my industry is growing so finding work is not difficult at the moment. Much of that growth is due to advances in technology.
Well, if we are to pay people to do nothing, they can't have children. That's just a fact of math. In order to receive money, they have to be on some type of birth control, one that can be monitored like depo provera. Their food also needs to be monitored, because it has been proven that those with low intelligence make poor food choices, which leads to health problems, which will ultimately be paid for by the government.
I recognize that this type of government control and monitoring is unsettling to some, but it needs to be emphasized that they will get paid just for existing. They will be dependents of the state and like any dependents, there needs to be firm rules in place.
Good post. I think you're on to just one of the many dystopian possibilities. Losing the ability to self-determine... becoming subjects... This may well be where we are headed. And getting paid just for existing -- one wonders why they / we need to exist at all at that point...
Good post. I think you're on to just one of the many dystopian possibilities. Losing the ability to self-determine... becoming subjects... This may well be where we are headed. And getting paid just for existing -- one wonders why they / we need to exist at all at that point...
On the other hand, many speculate that when humans have the yoke of wage slavery removed it will allow them to unlock their creative potential and who knows where that could lead. Just think of all of the human potential that is stifled under the heavy weight of just struggling to survive day after day. Do you really believe that without a job we are useless beings with no reason to exist?
...allow them to unlock their creative potential...
I see little precedent for this and I think it takes an almost crass amount of optimism to view this as the likely outcome of our obsolescence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JAMS14
Do you really believe that without a job we are useless beings with no reason to exist?
I think human brains NEED danger, struggle, hard work, challenge, opposition, embattlement, setbacks, and scarcity. I think in the absence of genuine, rational versions of these we INVENT all these forces as false, irrational versions, individually and in groups, to our great detriment. I think the logical result of the artificial technocracy we're creating may, in the end, be the demise of human brains. Why continue to exist, consuming energy, matter, and space? If we're not needed we're not needed.
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