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Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by Uehreka on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @05:55PM (#46802882)
> Making up jobs to keep people employed isn't a viable solution to me. Supporting them in some way (re-training, UBI, service work, ...) seems like the only way forward.

If this is what you think needs to happen and you live in the US, then you should be freaking out right now, not calmly posting takes like this. UBI is not a thing almost any current American politician is considering, and the overton window is speeding in the opposite direction.

You should not expect people to be reasonable about this. I don’t know what the answer here is, but if you want it to be UBI, you need to fight for it. The alternatives (artificial price controls, the dumb make-work policies you correctly disdained, first-amendment-breaking/privacy-violating AI bans) are out there, and if you don’t fight for the thing you want, you’re gonna get one of those.

Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by WalterBright on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @08:46PM (#46804621)
The math doesn't work out for UBI.
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by cptroot on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @11:05PM (#46805693)
Would you like to elaborate why the math doesn't work out? An article explaining your position would be nice, but I'd settle for some broad gestures.
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by WalterBright on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @11:44PM (#46805891)
342,000,000 people in the US. Multiply by $10,000/yr.

Cost of UBI: 3,420,000,000,000

Where is $3.5 trillion going to come from?

Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by izacus on Thursday January 29, 2026 @07:37AM (#46809362)
From cancelling pointless military projects?
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by WalterBright on Thursday January 29, 2026 @10:03AM (#46811136)
The entire defense budget is $874b.

As I remarked, the UBI math doesn't work.

Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by jack_h on Thursday January 29, 2026 @04:00PM (#46816514)
UBI would be pure deficit spending which would basically double it. Our interest is already the #2 federal outlay at $1 trillion (defense is #5 last I heard) and we're already in fiscal dominance. So the end result is UBI would trigger much higher inflation which would make those UBI checks worthless.
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by boh144 on Thursday January 29, 2026 @09:13AM (#46810463)
From corporate profits, which should be rising from labor cost cutting? Ultimately if the pie is growing and accruing to a few organizations, then either we create new wealth transfer mechanisms (progressive tax codes being one such previous example) or become a feudal society, which will probably stagnate.
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by joquarky on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @09:08PM (#46804829)
UBI will become at least as complicated as federal taxes. Perverse incentives will creep in.
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by WalterBright on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @10:05PM (#46805245)
Paying people to not work will never work.
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by stonogo on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @10:35PM (#46805485)
It's working in the farm bills for a hundred years.
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by WalterBright on Thursday January 29, 2026 @02:23AM (#46806885)
Paying people to not work accomplishes what?
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by stonogo on Thursday January 29, 2026 @03:48AM (#46807468)
No idea, you'd have to ask the farmers
Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by no_wizard on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @08:53PM (#46804684)
> I don’t know what the answer here is

Blood. If things don’t reverse course this trajectory historically leads to bloodshed.

In many respects it already has. How many people have died just this year already because businesses didn’t do what they were suppose to? Because cutting costs with no consequences is seen as the norm?

Of course nobody wants to account for those externalities and when that blood comes back on them they become scared and use government force instead. You’re seeing the trial run with ICE as we write our comments on this forum

Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by slibhb on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @10:40PM (#46805526)
> UBI is not a thing almost any current American politician is considering, and the overton window is speeding in the opposite direction.

That will change real quick if everyone loses their job to AI. But until then, yeah, it's not going to happen, and it shouldn't.

Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by Uehreka on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @11:28PM (#46805820)
> That will change real quick if everyone loses their job to AI.

No, this is exactly my point: they will be angry, unreasonable, and thirsty for revenge. They’ll hand over freedoms like Halloween candy. How about a law where the government gets to survey your hard drive to make sure you’re not harboring an AI model? Sounds crazy, sounds insane, but in the current political climate I’d rate it more likely than UBI.

Re:Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency by apothegm on Thursday January 29, 2026 @07:55PM (#46819229)
Yeah. We’ve seen this movie before, and most of us didn’t like the way it ended.