Re:Time for a Guaranteed Basic Income?
by acdha on Saturday January 23, 2016 @03:11PM
(#10959853)
> So I don't have some moral problem with not working. The problem is the tax base would implode and there wouldn't be anyone left paying the bills. The system would collapse.
> Maybe if software actually eats the world but not until then.
That's the most likely way I see a basic income happening, too: automation eats into a huge number of jobs – self-driving vehicles take out a LOT of people currently working as truckers, delivery drivers, etc.; robots turn Amazon warehouses into ghost towns where a few technicians tend the machines; whole categories of office jobs continue to fade as analog data entry goes away and processes are automated; and so forth.
In that kind of scenario, it's easy to imagine voters supporting a tax on high earners and corporate income to provide an income for people who simply don't have skills which can't be done by a machine.
That's the most likely way I see a basic income happening, too: automation eats into a huge number of jobs – self-driving vehicles take out a LOT of people currently working as truckers, delivery drivers, etc.; robots turn Amazon warehouses into ghost towns where a few technicians tend the machines; whole categories of office jobs continue to fade as analog data entry goes away and processes are automated; and so forth.
In that kind of scenario, it's easy to imagine voters supporting a tax on high earners and corporate income to provide an income for people who simply don't have skills which can't be done by a machine.