I really enjoy teaching people what they already know. It’s like humor. To me, a lot of humor is funny because you are telling people a truth in a way they had simply not noticed before. So, let’s proceed.
First, the idea of “universal basic income” is an popular idea among technologists who beleueve that as machines (computers / robots) become more productive than people, that we will all just collect a check from the govt, perhaps first as a “negative income tax” or other gradual approach. Even during the last election, there was at least one candidate (Yang) who proposed such as part of his platform
- How would you recognize universal basic income, or, what are the main requirements?
Even my younger kids knew the answer. Pause and think if you have not already.
……..
- Everyone will get paid
- There will be no requirement to get paid
Simple and clear. Now, has such a thing already started? Think carefully…
………..
If you said stimulus checks, then you are right.
And the next stimulus checks will be much larger / tax returns will be more reversed than they are today for the average income persons.
Few realized that even businesses and farmers got loans from the govt, but to date, almost ALL have been forgiven, so it’s just another handout really. Another reason to think that gold is increasingly lustrous in the future, but I write about that on my economics blog.
A couple years ago I came up with a concept which is: the more a govt tries to indiscriminately and carelessly rescue all of its citizens, the more likely it’s guaranteed their demise. Welcome to modern America.
Stimulus checks were a perfect example of that of course, and why communism/advanced socialism never works, and also why the future of AI guarantees the failure of humanity.
With no need for human labor, as AI (mind) and robots (bodies) do all the hard work, then society is without purpose nor need. More on that here.
The irony is, that we have never been richer than ever, and yet the global financial system is at unprecedented risk levels. Additionally, many people feel they are poorer than ever, while global govt spending and debts are at historically unprecedented levels. [examples]. No amount of economic growth can solve the permanent problems of society of waste and selfishness, whether at the govt, business, or individual levels. [govt chart of % of spending GDP]
THIS WAS A SEPARATE ARTICLE THAT I NEED TO MERGE
It is interesting that no one has mentioned the reality that coronavirus checks were actually a form of UBI, because for the first time in history, governments around the world handed out money to all of their citizens—no work needed.
- In the United States, for example, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided a one-time stimulus payment of up to $1,200 to eligible individuals and $2,400 to eligible married couples, with additional payments for children.
- Similar programs were implemented in other countries, such as Canada’s Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and
- Australia’s JobKeeper Payment.
There was the money handed out with the goal of businesses hiring more people, yet that often did not happen in reality since no real constraints were given.
Farmers received large stimulus payments too, unbeknownst to many “The $2 trillion relief plan includes $49 billion in funds for the agriculture and food industry.”
Are there others? I am not sure, but clearly people are being paid to just stay busy and even just to exist. The Federal govt has now set precedence for universally subsidizing living. There is now nothing stopping them from increasing the amount paid in future economic downturns. Similarly, they way start issuing larger tax refunds and negative income taxes.
I don’t know, but if it continues, how will it be different than communism (for which the appeal is dramatically increasing in the US)? Remember that communism is not a system of equality as much as it is a system of legalized, forced theft of the efforts of others. More importantly, it provides the means for a ruling elite or dictatorship to subject its population. If that lesson wasn’t clear from Mao, Stalin, and other socialists, then you do not understand history. And even though they have made progress, China is still authoritarian; Russia is still a mafia-state.
This is probably the greatest risk of AI, other than wiping us out. A ruling class that is unstoppable other than through direct rebellion against it.
Perhaps UBI payments, once instituted, will not succumb to such political ideologies, in that such payments will remain equal to everyone. However, if politicians have their say, like the recent ones that promised $5M+ to each black person in S.F., that is unlikely to continue as certain groups and classes will be favored over others.
Even if it’s distributed equally, society is likely to fail due to the reduced need for people, as I discuss elsewhere on this site.
HumanIT 