- Advocates say that a guaranteed basic income can lead to more creative, fulfilling work. The question is how to fund it.
theadvancedapes -always think of you when the topic of basic income arises.
I think it was Switzerland or some other country where they're thinking of implementing a basic living allowance. Many things will be automated and performed by robots -- Conservatively, I say another 15 years before that process begins to snowball. It's been an interesting thought project of mine to imagine an entirely automated McDonald's restaurant. That said, machines are expensive to own and maintain... Only corporations with access to resources will be able to control them. It's kind of worrisome, to an extent, but this would be a problem for government to tackle: If corporations own the machines, thereby removing the worker, to whom will the profits go? Who will be the ones buying cheeseburgers from McDonald's? What would you do with your free time if you didn't have to work? The only thing that would prevent a civilization like this from existing would be the greed and maliciousness of those holding influential positions... clinging to the past and fighting for breath like a dying candle. A system like this is inevitable, but it will require the awakening of the world's population; there's more than enough iPhones for everyone.
What would you do with your free time if you didn't have to work?
What a great question. I had to pose it to the community. See my answer here:
In reference to your automation comments: and the companion section of the Hello Internet Podcast (I tried to put the link at the correct time. it should be 34:01): watch those before you read my comments, otherwise you'll just think I'm a crazy person. I frankly see this as the best and most important argument towards basic income - Soon, sooner than most of us think, there will be large swaths of people who, through no fault of their own, will be unemployable. there will be no jobs for these people, and there will be enough of them that we cannot ignore them. We need to be prepared for that eventuality.
So he thinks the government should provide him a basic income, but gets other people to pay his expenses for him anyways? I think the article is cool, and I love the idea of automation enabling us to provide basic income to everyone (I have my doubts about practicality, since "26000 redditors" doesn't exactly dazzle me in terms of pragmatism), but hasn't he basically just tricked people into paying his expenses? How is this going to drum up support for their cause?Unlike most crowdfunders, Santens is not asking for seed money for a specific project, like a tech startup, a nonprofit organization, or a feature film. Nor is he asking for money for a specific problem like unpaid medical bills. He’s asking for free money to live his life. Any additional money that he crowdfunds, above $1,000 per month, will be donated to other basic-income activists who are doing the same thing. However, he will keep other money that he earns from working as a freelance writer. He says the same thing would happen with a government-funded basic income: People would keep the additional money they earn from their jobs.
I suspect he'd likely stop the crowdfunding once he gets his subsidized income, but I'm not inclined to take that on as an act of faith, especially if I were one of his donors. I'm not one of his donors, and never will be; I unfortunately, am not one of those people who can depend on my charisma to pay my bills, regardless how minimalistic of a life I lead.
This is the first I've heard of the concept outside of science-fiction. While I'm glad to hear someone it working on the problem, and with what seems like a decent head on their shoulders, I feel like starting in the US is a bad idea. It's not so much the people as it is the size of the country. The solution (and the problem) may not be easily scalable (or scalable at all). Even if it were done to satisfaction in England, which scales to about the size of the state of Illinois, I think it would be easier for Americans to start thinking "Yeah, maybe we could do that too." England is also a primarily English-speaking country, which also aids in translation-free cross-communication and sharing of ideas.
It's a messed up place in that regard. In many other regards, it's awesome though.I think it would be easier for Americans to start thinking "Yeah, maybe we could do that too
I'm not so sure it would matter either way. Americans don't give a shit about practical data from other countries. Take a look at the topic of universal healthcare. Americans don't care that it works elsewhere. In fact, they feel affronted that anyone even suggest another country may be more progressive or have an idea that we ought to consider.
As robots gradually become the only workers..we all need to think about what's next for the whole society. Of course if there are no jobs ..then there is no income tax..so tax needs to come only from enterprise profits. A minimum "wage" could be distributed to each and every citizen in the form of rationing of goods and services (delivered mainly by robots). A "civic contribution" could augment the basic "wage" to top it up..and people would have a lot more freetime..to be selfish with or perhaps to develop a new enterprise..