Why universal basic income might become unavoidable

[DetlefK]

http://io9.com/how-universal-basic-income-will-save-us-from-the-robot-1653303459

To sum it up:
1. The middle-class is disappearing as social inequality increases.
2. Robotization is destroying employment-opportunities.

The only jobs that are safe are high-end jobs where a robot can't replace you and low-end jobs where hiring you is still cheaper than a robot.
Taxi-drivers? Warehouse-men? Conveyor-belt workers? Booking-agents? Disappearing.

But if there is not enough wage around to buy all the stuff that the industry produces, who will keep the economy going?
Will the billionaires buy 10,000 pairs of shoes each year? Will they buy 10,000 new cars each year? They won't, because they don't need that stuff.

They only way to keep the economy going in such a scenario would be to pump money into the marketplace via an artificial mechanism: Somebody has to buy products! And as communism has showed, top-down planned economies fail, so the only other option is to leave this investment to the consumers themselves: A universal minimum-wage for the unwashed, unemployed masses that would mimic a pre-robot economy.

Either that or the guillotine. Your choice, billionaires.

[libtodeath]

1. We need FDRs second bill of rights

every person has a right to food,shelter and healthcare.

[SheilaT]

2. Except that a universal basic income

would probably only cover the basics and leave nothing to buy the shoes or cars that are produced.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. Robots don't replace labor, they shift it.

Robots still have to be designed, manufactured, distributed, installed, calibrated, programmed, maintained, supervised, repaired and powered.

[davekriss]

6. Yes but the remaining jobs are less...

...in number and aggregate pay than the jobs they replace. Otherwise why invest in robots? The result: Technology and automation are factors chipping away at the middle class.

The middle class, note, is a historical aberration: existing in numbers post-WWII through its peak in 1973. We are returning to a more normal, hierarchical and exploitative distribution of wealth and power. Welcome to the 21st century: the century of neo-feudalism.

[DetlefK]

11. It doesn't look that way if you crunch the numbers.

The number of jobs that a robotic economy destroys scales linearly, e.g. 1000 robots replace 1000 workers.

But it only takes about 100 workers to produce and take care of 1000 robots. That means, effectively 900 human jobs are lost.

[jeff47]

15. They fill more jobs than they replace.

The combine harvester replaced a whole lot of farm hands.

Manufacturing, maintaining and driving a combine harvester takes a lot less people than it took to harvest a field by hand.

Same with any other automation. Businesses switch to automation because it is cheaper to use because it replaces more labor than it takes to make and maintain the robot.

[LiberalLoner]

4. I believe the choice of the elite is to let most of us die, and soon.

But then, I tend towards pessimism, so what do I know.

[malthaussen]

5. They'd prefer to shoot us...

... but they don't want to spend the money to buy the bullets.

-- Mal

[davekriss]

7. Well, there are too many of us

We should die proudly for their children and grandchildren.

(Now where's that sarcasm thingy?)

[jeff47]

16. The problem is people don't peacefully starve to death.

And there's a lot more of us than there are of them.

So they're using misdirection for now (ie. Fox News). But that doesn't work forever.

[mindwalker_i]

8. This is something too often missing from the conversation about robots

It would be very easy to completely destroy the markets that roboticized companies are selling to, so in effect, it isn't destroying jobs, it's destroying companies and entire classes of companies. There would be maintenance and designing/building robots until robots can do that - building will come first by a long way.

[exboyfil]

9. The insane thing is that there is still lots of important work

that needs to be done that is not getting done. For example my daughter went through CNA training this summer in anticipation of nursing school. The CNAs are being given more tasks that prevent them from doing some of those things that make life worth living for the residents. For example they used to take time out to do the patients nails. They don't have that time available anymore. The same thing has happened to my grandmother in her nursing home.

Our infrastructure is decayed and dangerous rebuilding projects seem to take forever. Wouldn't things be better with more road workers?

Cannot a plan be put into place to retrench Detroit and turn the surrounding blighted area into crop growing green fields?

[Orsino]

10. 1) Speech is a right. 2) Money is speech.

3) Money is a right. Right?

[Octafish]

13. Triple Plus Good!

Very much appreciate the way you took that!

[Bosonic]

12. A basic stipend may become necessary

The alternative is massive decentralization of power/manufacturing/services so essentially the basic needs are free to individuals/small communities...

[closeupready]

14. I'd like to see a return to Eisenhower-era marginal tax rates.

In addition, tax all income, regardless of source, at those rates.