Universal Basic Income?
Posted by rbroberg 7 years, 10 months ago to Government
We have seen several reasons why people believe UBI is a good idea, which generally consist of bad ideas. We have also seen several reasons why people believe UBI is a bad idea, which generally consist of worse ideas.
The argument is that due to technological advances, people become obsolete to the machine (now called automation) and therefore a universal basic income is required to maintain the population group whose skills become obsolete due to this evolution.
The arguments for it are not worth your time. The arguments against it range from "there will be an increase in technological jobs" to "universal basic income incentives more people not to work". Well, these are excellent deductions, but do the opposite of justifying an argument against UBI. Why? Because they stem from the same pragmatist base as the arguments for. Would it be acceptable to provide an income to people if there were not an increase in technological jobs, but, rather, sales jobs? Would it be acceptable to provide income to people if the government required them to work on some government projects in order to receive the benefits?
The root of the argument against universal basic income has to come from a moral basis, not a pragmatic one. We know it is wrong for those who work to create, design, build, maintain, and manage automation to support those who contribute nothing. We know it is wrong for those who work to support those who negate the pride of productive work. There is no need to delve into a "climate model" of social behavior when the writing is on the wall; universal basic income is just another altruist gag intended to punish those who choose to innovate and succeed.
The argument is that due to technological advances, people become obsolete to the machine (now called automation) and therefore a universal basic income is required to maintain the population group whose skills become obsolete due to this evolution.
The arguments for it are not worth your time. The arguments against it range from "there will be an increase in technological jobs" to "universal basic income incentives more people not to work". Well, these are excellent deductions, but do the opposite of justifying an argument against UBI. Why? Because they stem from the same pragmatist base as the arguments for. Would it be acceptable to provide an income to people if there were not an increase in technological jobs, but, rather, sales jobs? Would it be acceptable to provide income to people if the government required them to work on some government projects in order to receive the benefits?
The root of the argument against universal basic income has to come from a moral basis, not a pragmatic one. We know it is wrong for those who work to create, design, build, maintain, and manage automation to support those who contribute nothing. We know it is wrong for those who work to support those who negate the pride of productive work. There is no need to delve into a "climate model" of social behavior when the writing is on the wall; universal basic income is just another altruist gag intended to punish those who choose to innovate and succeed.
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I work in information system and my specialty is cloud resource automation. In another word, I build the automation that creates complete environments with a few clicks of a mouse. We have been feeding on our own since 2005; we keep automating more and more technology to reduce time to market, reduce costs, reduce complexity for end-users, reduce human interaction necessary to complete the project at the expense of our own employment. The information system professional has changed since the late nineties, for the better… We are leaches to the bottom line of a business.
Information Systems automation is coming to a physical world near you very soon and its will have incredible negative consequences on the world economies. When an employer can purchase a machine that works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without all the insurance, taxes, sick leave, vacation, training, maternity leave, and a retirement account for $100,000, sure sounds like a killer deal to me; Its over for anyone that machine replaces.
UBI is a joke… no one nowhere will give a flying #&@% about your income.
I don’t think there are any good solutions to this wave of automation.
Mitch
I say be aware that calls for socialist-like policies will increase because the cost of labor decreasing is a real thing. Politicians will be tempted to argue whatever policies they're initiating will cause this to change, but it won't. This leads to increase risk of socialism.
The actual "solution", assuming we call this a "problem" is for people to use the technology to their advantage. Technology puts them out of a job, but now every kid, even in poor countries, can have a super computer in the form of an old phone or Raspberry-Pi-like device hoked up to an old TV. Every one has access to a world of amazing new tools.
I don't know how it will play out. Leaps in technology, like the industrial revolution, can be painful. I'm concerned a coalition of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump supporters will say, "Feed me for showing up on time and turning a wrench. I don't care about the amazing new technologies and the wealth they create. I just want to go back to the good old days where we worked 9-5 and didn't have all this rapid change, new ideas, and these billionaire elites."