What are your thoughts on universal basic income?
Some interesting ideas already!
1. I have mixed feelings: some parts could be pretty good and some could be really, really bad
2. Financing this will be challenging
In the US we have been giving money away by printing it. Digital Dollars will make this even easier. While this seems like it would be inflationary I have heard fairly convincing arguments that it might not be because dollars get absorbed by global demand for US dollars. That is the "magical money tree" economic theory that we seem to be practicing in the US. I am not buying it but it will work until it doesn't.
3. Bernie Sanders and Bill Gates have suggested taxing the robots
This seems like a good idea on its surface but how would you do it? Is ChatGPT a taxable robot? Medical image recognition? A Roomba? Who would determine what the tax would be?
4. Many Silicon Valley types foresee a utopia of artists and poets freed from the drudgeries of having a job
5. Others forsee a dystopia of addiction and dispair.
6. There will be a mental health crisis as people are displaced from work. A UBI can help with finances.
7. In the US it might be beneficial to start with universal health care, or Include it in a UBI package
Health care is one of the three largest lifetime expenses for someone in the US, and often the largest.
8. It feels like UBI will be for “the other person” and no politician seems to talk to them to see what they need or how they would use it
It makes sense to phase out UBI for people that make good money. +/- $12,000 a year UBI means different things to someone whether that is "enrichment money" or "keep the lights on" money.
9. Children who are raised in a UBI society might not even understand what work is
10. In 50 years could robots take care of all human needs? Would we live on some type of crypto tokens? Could we, as a species, transcend the need to work?
You know, like in Idiocracy!
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