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VC Firm Y Combinator Launches an Experiment In Universal Basic Income (fastcoexist.com)
New submitter Gordon_Shure writes: Silicon Valley startup financer Y Combinator, remembered for successes like Airbnb and Dropbox, is launching an experiment to give people a Universal Basic Income. At present, the plan is for hundreds of participants to get repeated cash payments unconditionally. Then, assessors will record life consequences like changes in work patterns, self-employment, artistic endeavors, or idleness.
Recent focus on UBI in Finland, Switzerland and other countries see proponents claim a basic income will — in a world facing structural unemployment due to jobs taken by automated AI, robotics and machines — combat poverty and work insecurity. Others remain unconvinced. What do you think about the significance of what this kind of small-population study would show?
Recent focus on UBI in Finland, Switzerland and other countries see proponents claim a basic income will — in a world facing structural unemployment due to jobs taken by automated AI, robotics and machines — combat poverty and work insecurity. Others remain unconvinced. What do you think about the significance of what this kind of small-population study would show?
The original definition of Marxist Socialism involves state ownership of the means of production. The nordic counties used to be socialist but that ended in the 1980s (I lived in Sweden at the time). France is the most socialist country in Western Europe. The social democracies of Europe (like Bernie's democratic socialism) do not involve the state owning production.
If you want to use the looser definition of socialism often employed in the US (transfer of wealth from top to bottom) then every government that has ever existed is socialist. So that's not a useful defintion.
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Automation and AI are for real. I've heard about job replacement by automation my whole life. But now it is seriously happening and not just for menial labor.
There is actually very little evidence for that. America is at full employment. Labor force participation is not back to where it was in 2007, but that is mostly due to an aging population, not lack of jobs. If you look around the world, countries with the most automation (Japan, Germany, America) have the lowest unemployment, while countries with the least automation (India, Africa, Latin America) have the highest. This is exactly the opposite of what your theory would predict.
Automation is nothing new. Automated looms destroyed the jobs of weavers two centuries ago. In the late 1800s, automation of agriculture destroyed the majority of the jobs. Plenty of people predicted gloom and decline. Yet the opposite happened: The economy prospered and living standards soared. Technology makes workers more productive, and makes good and services cheaper in terms of human labor. There is little evidence that "this time things are different".