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America is running out of jobs. It's time for a universal basic income.
The Week ^ | 09/09/2014 | Ryan Cooper

Posted on 09/09/2014 11:43:55 AM PDT by DannyTN

The politics of a guaranteed income get a lot easier when you acknowledge that the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity

...

However, there are other trends that may be interacting with and exacerbating this original sin. Automation and globalization had already largely hollowed out America's manufacturing employment base; most jobs created during this "recovery" have been in crappy low-wage work. And when one takes automation to its obvious logical end, it's hard not to conclude that robots will soon be putting just about everyone out of a job.

... As someone with a nice, stimulating job, I agree that work can help people flourish. But in an economy that is flatly failing to produce enough jobs to satisfy the need, a universal basic income will start to seem more plausible — even necessary.

(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government
KEYWORDS: communism; guaranteedincome; jobs; miltonfriedman; minimumwage; negativeincometax; obamarecession; obamataxhikes; ubi; universalbasicincome; welfare
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To: 1FreeAmerican
everyone wants free money

Free Money!!


41 posted on 09/09/2014 12:10:38 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

Our President just ran up anther $7 Trillion dollars of debt for us to pay off

supposedly this was to provide us with “shovel ready jobs”

like the big public works projects you’re advocating.

So, we’ve paid already for your WPA/CCC type programs.
(But we haven’t gotten anything for our money yet....)

(I don’t believe USA can survive another $7 Trilion in debt, however.)


42 posted on 09/09/2014 12:10:47 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ((Brilliant, Profound Tag Line Goes Here, just as soon as I can think of one..))
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To: DannyTN

No more H1B visas. Most new high-tech jobs are taken by Asian and Indian immigrants and their relatives (via chain migration). They feed off of corporate corruption and the unspoken minority hiring quotas, which companies get around by hiring foreign workers from overseas.

Even if you get an interview, it is likely just to satisfy diversity requirements, and you have a zero percent chance of actually getting the job.


43 posted on 09/09/2014 12:12:11 PM PDT by RaveOn ("No amount of logic can shatter a faith consciously based on a lie." Lamar Keene, "True Believers")
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To: SoothingDave

Old idea. Milton Friedman called it the Negative Income Tax.


44 posted on 09/09/2014 12:13:56 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Conservatives are all that's left to defend the Constitution. Dems hate it, and Repubs don't care.)
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To: SoothingDave

I believe our first priority should be to get people back to work. Then I would have an audit conducted to find out just how many people on welfare need it to survive, due to medical problems.

The rest of the welfare recipients would then see their pay go down by roughly 4% each month, to be totally gone in 24 months.

I would do my best to make sure there were jobs in each locality for them, but the federal government is not mandated to give money away for free to anyone that doesn’t have a clear need.

I hear what you are saying. I understand the rationale behind it. I just don’t believe in it.

It’s time we got real with the mess Lyndon Johnson created around 1964.

Trillions later, things not having improved, it’s time to get people out of their homes doing something productive.


45 posted on 09/09/2014 12:15:47 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (We'll know when he's really hit bottom. They'll start referring to him as White.)
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To: cuban leaf

I was in 12th grade in 1982. I asked our BASIC programming teacher why we should use a two-digit year in the date field, when the year 2000 would cause problems because of the double 00’s?

He told me I had a bad attitude. He was a douche. Probably got rich fixing Y2K problems.


46 posted on 09/09/2014 12:15:50 PM PDT by RaveOn ("No amount of logic can shatter a faith consciously based on a lie." Lamar Keene, "True Believers")
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

Okay, if we “require” all US cars be made in the USA then why won’t Mercedes (Alabama plant), Nissan (TN plant), VW (TN plant), BMW (SC plant) do the same?


47 posted on 09/09/2014 12:16:58 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Conservatives are all that's left to defend the Constitution. Dems hate it, and Repubs don't care.)
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To: DannyTN
"Robotics and Artificial Intelligence may eventually cause enough labor dislocations that we have to resort to something like this."

That stuff when it takes off will hit like a nuclear bomb. It will be fast and devastating.

Remember how cell phones started? In the beginning a few folks had them in cars then big satchel phones then huge handhelds and a few years later smaller and more people owning them then all of the sudden everyone had them and now phone landlines are akin to buggy whips.

It has started slowly but it is gathering momentum and now with this 15 buck minimum wage B.S. Robotics/Automation is gonna explode.

I predict by the mid 20s most of what we consider now as low-paid menial jobs will not be done by humans at all in the Western countries. It will definitely change the world we live in.

48 posted on 09/09/2014 12:17:22 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: RaveOn

As an expert, I disagree with you. You see, I’ve found thousand upon thousands of jobs for people since 1983 and I know real from fake. Millions of people have found jobs online and many more do so every day. It’s the #1 way of finding a job in the modern world and has been for some time now. Networking or going door-to-door is fine, but the fact that one can put in for 10 or a hundred job opportunities a day from their couch or kitchen table has revolutionized job seeking.


49 posted on 09/09/2014 12:17:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
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To: DannyTN

It is time to get rid of the communists/liberals and the politicians that sell out this country to foreign interests.


50 posted on 09/09/2014 12:17:34 PM PDT by CodeToad (Romney is a raisin cookie looking for chocolate chip cookie votes.)
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To: Bobalu
I know many scoff at solar but solar gets cheaper every day and it will become a LOT cheaper than fossil fuel energy in a few decades.

Ya, we heard that promise many times in the 1970's under Jimma Carter.

51 posted on 09/09/2014 12:17:57 PM PDT by aimhigh (1 John 3:23)
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To: SoothingDave

Well...it’s time for a RESTART to “welfare and other benefits”....call it a JUBILEE....everyone has to requalify, and prove their need....or they get rice and beans, and a shovel.


52 posted on 09/09/2014 12:18:07 PM PDT by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

You advocate making things more expensive?

National servitude to the government with a draft?

Choo-choo trains?

Monuments?

....

No.

How about we cut government down to its Constitutional size and slash taxes and free up the economy so we can actually grow some real jobs instead of government make-work projects.


53 posted on 09/09/2014 12:18:19 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: DannyTN
Robotics and Artificial Intelligence may eventually cause enough labor dislocations that we have to resort to something like this.

It will happen sooner than you realize, and it will eliminate almost all jobs.

We are facing the greatest socio-economic disaster in history.

54 posted on 09/09/2014 12:18:26 PM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: F15Eagle

None of the jobs posted on those sites are real. They may have been at one time, but now they’re just bait. The job recruiting scam is one situation that calls for serious regulatory oversight.


55 posted on 09/09/2014 12:19:31 PM PDT by RaveOn ("No amount of logic can shatter a faith consciously based on a lie." Lamar Keene, "True Believers")
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To: DannyTN
What a load of cr**p! Take this, for example:
Why this is happening is an interesting question. Undoubtedly the most important part of the story is poor macroeconomic management: aggregate demand collapsed in 2008, and due to centrist and conservative obstruction, the policy response was insufficient.

The problem is that the regime used the money to keep non-productive bureaucrats in jobs, instead of using it to stimulate the productive private part of the economy. That was against everything Keynes recommended.

56 posted on 09/09/2014 12:19:51 PM PDT by expat2
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To: Age of Reason

universal welfare will not work

it will drive up costs and that means very high inflation


57 posted on 09/09/2014 12:21:42 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: DannyTN

If America is running out of jobs, how about we quit importing “workers”??


58 posted on 09/09/2014 12:24:05 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Mad Dawgg; DannyTN
I predict by the mid 20s most of what we consider now as low-paid menial jobs will not be done by humans at all in the Western countries.

It's not going to stop at replacing menial jobs.

Everyone's job is at risk of being eliminated by technology, and much sooner than most people realize.

And when that happens, we'll all be on the government dole, each of us getting the same allowance from the government.

There will be no way to better oneself economically.

It will be a socialist's dream and the biggest manmade disaster in history.

59 posted on 09/09/2014 12:24:22 PM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: expat2

Government spending NEVER ever helps the economy. Building roads and stuff allows the market to function better, sure, but the roads and stuff did not make the market function.

We already roads and bridges, new roads and bridges are nice and will last longer but they will not improve the economy.

Taking the government shackles off the economy will help, but almost no politician seems to want that.


60 posted on 09/09/2014 12:24:42 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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