Posted on 03/07/2017 9:37:43 AM PST by blam
People are also viewing all of this as if nothing is going to progress from this stage into new technologies & concepts. Used to be the “black rotary phone” was the pinnacle of communications, chat ‘round the world with just a few strokes of a finger ... never did anyone but Nikola Tesla predict the “phone” would mutate into a pocket-sized supercomputer giving billions instant access to the totality of human knowledge & cat videos, a device costing a week’s wage and requiring a quarter-million low-wage workers to produce. Once we’ve fully automated everything we have & want now, technology & society will evolve into requiring manual labor to produce the next era of not-yet-automated must-haves.
We have practically automated everything which society considered normal 100 years ago. Nonetheless, we need human laborers - practically every adult can be employed. Just because we could automate everything we deem normal now doesn’t mean we won’t need human labor for future “needs”.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. One slob’s “free money” was stolen from someone else.
I like 40 acres and a mule too, but you’ve gotta count the cost of buying back that land from BigAg, Monsanto, and the other big boys who have put small family farms out of business.
I read a little book decades ago by a health guru, Dr. R.N. Walker who said you could raise a family of four (two kids) and be totally self sufficient on 10 acres if you had two goats, a small flock of chickens, a couple of fruit trees, and knew good organic farming methods. Come to think of it, he lived in a state that was sunny year round, and was advocating vegetarianism: the goats were for milk and cheese, the chickens just for eggs. Many people could do the diet easily by adding an occasional steak and lamb chop. I actually prefer goat milk to cows’—an acquired taste. Goats eat far less than cows.
I really do wonder about the confidence in humanity in this case.
“The Bell Curve” argues the opposite - that much of humanity is too inflexible or incapable to add much value beyond what can be automated, and its likely that fraction will get smaller and smaller.
We already see a large population that is redundant, self-segregated from productive labor or any sort of social contribution. Some of this is the result of poor socialization and degeneracy, but a great deal seems to be plain incapacity.
Initial reports are encouraging.
People want to use the extra money to look for work or start a business.
Guaranteed income works the opposite from welfare by eliminating perverse incentives. Under welfare, if you earn more, you lose your benefits. That discourages work and breeds idleness.
Guaranteed income on the on hand, establishes a floor you cannot fall under. You’re free to make as little or as much as you want and to be productive because you can take risks to succeed and know you will still able to count on income.
Conservatives hate welfare for good reason but conservatives and libertarians have backed guaranteed income. Unlike welfare, in the end it will more than pay for itself.
Finland is about to find out if guaranteed income can replace welfare.
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