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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: GeronL

What is not conservative is government micro-managing people’s personal choices to make sure they don’t get off welfare.

An income guarantee is not welfare. It simply is a floor through which you can’t fall regardless of the economy or social changes in our society. It frees people to take risks, to start that small business or invent something because a true safety net is always there.

In our current welfare system, people are paid to do nothing. UBI isn’t about extending the dole but getting the government out of people’s lives and telling them what they can and can’t do. That is more compatible with small government, greater freedom and empowering individuals and families is what conservatives are after.


121 posted on 09/09/2014 1:10:45 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Mad Dawgg

Butlerian Jihad!


122 posted on 09/09/2014 1:11:36 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: GeronL

“Good reason to end immigration”

People forget our borders were closed from 1929 to the mid-sixties if I remember correctly.


123 posted on 09/09/2014 1:11:41 PM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (RINOS like Romney, McCain, Christie are sure losers. No more!)
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To: 21twelve
"I’m still waiting for a flying car per those 1960’s Popular Science magazines."

Already here......:)

124 posted on 09/09/2014 1:11:59 PM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: KeyLargo
"Want robots at McDonald’s? Hike minimum wage: Zell"

And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one, who would trust fast food a little more, if it was a robot and not a person handling it.

125 posted on 09/09/2014 1:13:24 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: DannyTN

Yes, tariffs and lower taxes. And tort reform and regulations reductions. And re-education.

But also:

The Southern Fence: labor-rich for our unemployed, many or most using hand tools, living in tent cities near the fence. That, or no welfare.

Then, a Bounty for Illegals and ensuing round-up. And busting employers of illegal immigrants. Many job openings.

Then, mass Deportations through the fence.

Then, welfare reform to flop cots, rice and beans, and permanent birth control.

And they say there’s no solutions...


126 posted on 09/09/2014 1:13:40 PM PDT by polymuser ( Enough is enough.)
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To: GeronL
"socialism is not “progress”"

No but I believe he was talking about legislation to stop automation taking jobs.

Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and posted it on youtube.

Luddites

127 posted on 09/09/2014 1:13:59 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: goldstategop
The idea behind is a decent society doesn’t let people fend for themselves.

Those who will not work should starve. Simple.

128 posted on 09/09/2014 1:15:29 PM PDT by thesharkboy (posting without reading the article since 1998)
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To: goldstategop
An income guarantee is not welfare

Yes it is.

It frees people to take risks, to start that small business or invent something because a true safety net is always there.

or to be an artist, as Nancy Pelosi says.

Universal Basic Income is either a higher minimum wage or welfare. Which is it? Those who sit on their butts will get it, we all know it.

129 posted on 09/09/2014 1:18:20 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: RaveOn

It’s a great idea. Too bad that he didn’t follow through on it (see continuing California politics against new, small production and self-sufficiency, same in other western states). The regulations will be out of the way soon, or they’ll only be serious liabilities.


130 posted on 09/09/2014 1:19:46 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: goldstategop

OK, I’ll assume you’re doing/will do that forever with your children, giving them a minimum base, and they can earn over that.

If not, why should I do that for a stranger?


131 posted on 09/09/2014 1:19:47 PM PDT by polymuser ( Enough is enough.)
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To: Bobalu
100%. Menial jobs will go the way of the dodo and 95% of people will not be needed to work.

Eventually the only jobs will be R&D to improve the machines (until AI takes over that too).

Even “the elite” may become a thing of the past because earthly pleasures will be available cheaply to anyone through VR. EVERYONE could have the private island, the supermodel and the sportscar at the touch of a button. Today, everyone fights and scams for those limited things.

For better or worse, technology will turn human nature upside down...

132 posted on 09/09/2014 1:19:50 PM PDT by varyouga
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To: DannyTN
Barack Obama Thinks an ATM Ate Your Job

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | June 15th, 2011 at 04:45 AM |

Yesterday, Barack Obama gave away the game. Without actually using the words, Barack Obama admitted he is completely and utterly ignorant about job creation and economics. In an interview with the Today Show, Barack Obama declared that the unemployment rate remains so high because of ATMS.Sadly, many people will agree with him because they lack the vision to see the whole picture. They see less bank tellers and more ATMs — much as Barack Obama does — and presume this must mean higher unemployment.

This myth, and it is a myth, is older than even the great lament that cars put blacksmiths on the unemployment line by getting rid of the need for horse shoes.This left-wing populist thinking does not create jobs and often leads to dangerous policies that stifle the innovation that create the jobs that spring forth from the ATM’s replacing the bank tellers. Barack Obama sees less tellers at the banks because of ATM’s. But he does not see new IT workers at the bank to manage the ATM — higher paid than the tellers. He does not see the computer programmers. He does not see the manufacturers of the machines and their component parts.Barack Obama should read Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson. The book was written in 1945 and debunks Obama’s myth succinctly. K. E. Campbell links to the relevant portion:

http://www.redstate.com/diary/Erick/2011/06/15/barack-obama-thinks-an-atm-ate-your-job/

133 posted on 09/09/2014 1:20:10 PM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: KeyLargo

bump


134 posted on 09/09/2014 1:23:58 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: polymuser

Agreed. I’d be okay with paying the illegals to go home. Give them a $3000 - $4000 bonus to leave with the condition that if they come back they spend 30 years in prison. And collect biometric info on them before paying.

That would eliminate for the takers, the cost of rounding them up. And it would help buffer the receiving countries as well.

But there is no way I’d do that unless and until the border is closed, and existing immigration laws are enforced. It wouldn’t make sense to do it when they can just sneak back in and count on the administration to ignore the law and the agreement.


135 posted on 09/09/2014 1:26:08 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: varyouga
"For better or worse, technology will turn human nature upside down..."

Yep it is coming and I see big problems coming down the pike with it...

There will be much strife and bloodshed before it all gets ironed out.

I believe the term for such is "fecal matter striking the bladed air circulating device"

136 posted on 09/09/2014 1:29:50 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: DannyTN

We’d probably be a lot better off without all the illegals and third world throwback porkophobes.


137 posted on 09/09/2014 1:30:50 PM PDT by Califreak (Hope and Che'nge is killing U.S.)
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To: DannyTN

Where, in the US Constitution, do you find any authority for Congress to guarantee peoples’ income?


138 posted on 09/09/2014 1:31:28 PM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: 21twelve
I’m still waiting for a flying car per those 1960’s Popular Science magazines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnF2yua4KIw

139 posted on 09/09/2014 1:33:47 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: GeronL

“I cannot say I am not stunned to see freepers advocating socialism”

Done right, it could be a huge step towards capitalism. Currently, the government traps people in a welfare state where there isn’t a good way to work to make your life better because each dollar you earn means you get less welfare benefit. The behavior taught is that the best choice is to do nothing.

In addition, we pay a huge amount of overhead to administer a huge number of overlapping programs with a significant amount of government interference in our lives.

The universal base income mans takes away the liberal argument towards progressive taxes and means that we could embrace something like a flat tax where opportunity once again exists to go out and work for “more”. I don’t know what jobs will look like in the future, I’ve been following automation for some time now and 20-30 years is going to be a very different world than we are in now. I do know that people are creative and there will be something.

I’m more worried about a way to dial back the size of government (both number of programs and intrusion into our lives). One UBI program could replace thousands of welfare programs, justify simpler a simpler tax system that could eliminate the IRS, and eliminate a ton of other government waste and overhead. It may not be “ideal”, but it could be a lot smaller than the government is today... and thus I think it is more conservative than it is socialist.


140 posted on 09/09/2014 1:34:06 PM PDT by csivils
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