Re:American truck drivers could lose their jobs to robots
by themagician on Wednesday August 10, 2016 @12:32AM
(#12259511)
People will have to adapt to a new way of life. We are going to move into a world where full employment means 50% of people don't work, because there is nothing for them to do. Like the computer, the cost of everything will begin to decline rapidly when general purpose robots and automation take over human tasks. The UBI equation may well balance. When there are no human costs the only cost is energy. In theory, you will need far less income.
Honestly, I'm excited to see what happens as it will happen in my lifetime. 30 years ago we had the first general purpose computers. Look at where we are now. Today we have the first general purpose robots. Imagine where we will be in 30 years. It's hard to imagine.
Drivers, construction workers, doctors, lawyers—it's all going to be dramatically different 30 years from now. Forget the US. All those jobs making everything from iPhones to t-shirts will also be at risk. When you don't need specialized equipment and you can buy a robot that can make t-shirts for a few thousand dollars you don't need the human anymore.
If not UBI, then what? What do all these people do?
Re:American truck drivers could lose their jobs to robots
by tim333 on Monday August 08, 2016 @07:42PM
(#12251566)
You can't really say definitely that the equations won't work without some details. If the UBI level was similar to unemployment benefit / social security and workers received it but had less tax allowances then the payments could work out about the same as they do now.
You are right that ongoing elimination of jobs is a problem leading to huge social unrest, and UBI fits the bill to be a good solution for this.
The only problem with UBI is that it is unsustainable and therefore impossible. The balance just doesn't check out. The mere retirement schemes are in grave danger of collapse; the money there are long spent. UBI is huge, and there is no way to get this kind of money from anywhere (even if you strip away all capital from the top 1% and send them to labor camps, as it was done elsewhere, the money from this will fuel $1000/month UBI for about 2 years tops).
Antigravity would be an excellent solution to our space travel challenges, but we don't know any way to make it work. It is exactly the same with UBI.