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RE: Universal Basic Income: The Answer to Automation
But why should people be forced to work just because of some idea that we "ought" to if we have robots who can do the work for us? People would be able to be free to be creative members of society, following their passions instead of doing bullshit jobs they don;t give a shit about.
Okay but nobody is "forced to work". If you're consuming resources at the expense of society, yes you should have to pay the people who work for keeping you alive. Secondly, robots and AI's won't take all of the jobs. We're just seeing a resurgence of the same myth that spawned panic over employment during the industrial revolution. As we quickly found out, there's always work for humans to do, and we're not hitting "the singularity" anytime soon. Robots and AI's just reduce costs, meaning everything gets cheaper, and then people find work elsewhere. New kinds of jobs are created as a result of this - and even if there are not as many types of jobs in general for people to work at, more of these jobs will be created at lower wages due to the increase in labor supply. This means in some areas, human labor will be cheaper than buying the automated machines. Though the lower wages sounds bad, everyone will actually end up have a higher standard of living. Money does not equal wealth. And if we let people "follow their passions" with basic income, far less will get done and we'll start to consume more than we produce. Rather than do that, why don't we fix our school systems so people are actually able to follow their passions profitably, thereby increasing the standard of living for everyone?
I love history, but I don't believe the past is a guide to the crazy future we're rapidly approaching. Low/no skilled labor is already getting fucked right up the ass due to the automation of manufacturing in adition to the pressure of gloablism. Robots that can replace no/low skilled labors in industries like home building will eliminate those jobs. An architect will be paid to design your home, and someone else who owns robot workers will be paid to have the robots build it without food, sleep or smoke breaks. I believe that high skilled jobs will last until we create an artificial intelligence that easily outthinks us all. My argument isn't for the universal basic income. My argument is that society is going to experience such serious upheavals within the next 80 90 years that I don't know what it'll look like at the end but I do suspect yesterdays solutions won't be applicable.
Productivity gains should be spread throughout society, not used to make the rich (who own the machines) richer. Why should people still be working the same number of hours per week that they were in the 70's when we have seen so much gain in productivity due to increased automation?