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President Obama: We'll be debating unconditional free money 'over the next 10 or 20 years'
Business Insider ^ | October 12, 2016 | Chris Weller

Posted on 10/13/2016 11:28:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Speaking with Wired editor-in-chief Scott Dadich and MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito in a recent interview, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his belief that universal basic income would be harder to ignore in the coming decades.

UBI is a system of wealth distribution in which the government provides everyone with some money, regardless of income.

The money comes with no strings attached. People can use it however they choose, whether to repair a leaky roof or to go on vacation. Advocates say the system is a smart and straightforward way to lift people out of poverty.

A growing body of evidence suggests such a system might be necessary if artificial intelligence wipes out a huge chunk of jobs performed by humans. That is the future Obama wants to avoid, but he said the possibility warrants a debate on basic income....

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: automation; guaranteedincome; obama; welfare
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To: BinaryBoy
for #1 - UBI should be tailored for bare minimum i.e. to keep body fed (and that's one more big draw-back, who decides what is bare minimum)? -- and yes, I agree that in socialist countries when you separated reward from work, that meant less stuff

#2 - Read my post above -- with increased automation, 47% to 80% of people will be useless for any job. The repetitive jobs will be gone to automation -- whether manual or not. The non-repetitive ones, whether manual (plumbing) or non-manual (robotics programming) can't be done by everyone.

61 posted on 10/14/2016 4:03:43 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: wastoute

Yup, sterilization and Soylent green.


62 posted on 10/14/2016 4:05:00 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Fai Mao

“...then why automate?”

People with free money won’t work?


63 posted on 10/14/2016 4:08:22 AM PDT by Gen.Blather (`)
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To: wastoute; 2ndDivisionVet; kearnyirish2
Wastoute's way is cruel but more efficient.

People who have no jobs can be put into legions for conquest.

The aim for this conquest should be the Middle East -- lots of money there...

64 posted on 10/14/2016 4:08:33 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Cronos; Pontiac

The basic problem is that it will not be enough (completely apart from the concept that printing money and giving it to people doesn’t create wealth).

Liberals look at income distribution and think it is unfair and should be controlled by the government so it is equitable. So the foundation of their policies is envy.

The problem with using envy as a foundation is that it cannot be controlled. If person A makes $10/Hr and person B makes $20/hr, it is a given that in LiberalLand, the person who makes $10 will feel resentment against person B who makes $20. And person C who makes $5/hr will resent everyone above them, and so on.

And the person who makes $30/hr resents the person who makes $40, etc., etc., etc.

This will not work, because the people who make the minimum $5/hr won’t be able to buy the same things as the person who makes $10/hr. In that environment, when the $5/hr person sees the lifestyle being lived by the $10 person, they will want that too.

And they will vote for politicians who will promise to raise the minimum, or fund entitlements, or give tax credits, or whatever.

And people will still resort to crime to get the money to live the lifestyle of someone above them (without having to work for it) just as they do now, it will not decrease crime by a single iota.

Like every single liberal concept (and yes, I know there have been conservatives,even someone like Hayek, who advocated this) it is a perpetual motion machine.


65 posted on 10/14/2016 4:09:26 AM PDT by rlmorel (Orwell described Liberals when he wrote of those who "repudiate morality while laying claim to it.")
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To: Steven Tyler

EXACTLY.


66 posted on 10/14/2016 4:10:16 AM PDT by rlmorel (Orwell described Liberals when he wrote of those who "repudiate morality while laying claim to it.")
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To: kearnyirish2

The political parties are dead. The Rats killed the GOP some time back and this cycle they are committing suicide. The Republic is DEAD.

Just yesterday FReepers, almost unanimously, vowed to NEVER SUPPORT THE GOP AGAIN. I saw it. You saw it.

The choice we face is not to “Save the Republic”. We let the political parties kill it, just as Washington feared. If we try to “Save the Republic” our gummint will (already is) turn against us.

If you really want to “Save the Republic” the time to act is RIGHT NOW. THIS MINUTE. ATTACK DC EN MASSE TODAY AND BURN IT TO THE GROUND.

See you there. I’ll meet you at the bridge over the Potomac.

Yeah, right.

So, back to, “Realistically, what are the possibilities?”.

Of all the options in front of us, which are most probable? To which is there the least resistance? Which requires the least effort and sacrifice? I would humbly submit that the options with these characteristics have the highest probability.

The “Save the Republic” through active resistance to Tyranny IS an option. About three percent of us are really prepared to die for this and every aspect of our gummint is determined to defeat us.

The same politicians that would shoot us down in the streets will sponsor our “ Victory Parades” as we return from Foreign Lands with booty liberated by conscripted Armies that we, with our military skills will lead. Empire is where Republics go to survive.

A nation of Useless Eaters will quickly be a victim to either it’s own corruption or ruthless neighbors.

I think we do have a limited window of opportunity but it is closing very quickly.


67 posted on 10/14/2016 4:10:18 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: kearnyirish2
True. What would happen though if we eliminated any and all welfare or any handouts from the state?

Would it be like in pre-Victorian England with poorhouses and people a la "A Christmas Carol"

68 posted on 10/14/2016 4:10:47 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Cronos

Those English people had a lot of incentive to work, didn’t they? And when England couldn’t provide the jobs, the people fanned out around the world developing it.


69 posted on 10/14/2016 4:12:10 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: wastoute

We’ve been losing those wars we used to justify our military expenses; our people return with ghastly wounds that will require a lifetime of care now instead of booty.


70 posted on 10/14/2016 4:13:39 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: wastoute

“Manifest Destiny “. It does begin to have that old resonance. Is one world governance so bad if we are the governors? Byzantium lasted 1,000 years.


71 posted on 10/14/2016 4:14:16 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The elimination of jobs on a mass scale will bring chages most have not thought about seriously. Government will become a vast redistribution apparatus dwarfing what it is now.

All the more reason the US should produce most of what it consumes.


72 posted on 10/14/2016 4:15:42 AM PDT by Will88
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To: kearnyirish2

That is why one conscripts the immigrants. I did not invent the concept. Empire is as old as humanity.


73 posted on 10/14/2016 4:18:41 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Like Free Lunches...there is no such thing as Free Money. Somebody pays...eventually.


74 posted on 10/14/2016 4:23:19 AM PDT by broken_arrow1 (I regret that I have but one life to give for my country - Nathan Hale "Patriot")
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To: broken_arrow1

This is what I am saying. We have a choice. We can continue to go broke supporting these immigrants for whom their country had no use or we can SEND THEM BACK IN UNIFORM WITH A RIFLE.

Seems to me that choice just about makes itself.


75 posted on 10/14/2016 4:48:00 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: kearnyirish2

true — it was work or starve


76 posted on 10/14/2016 4:49:10 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Cronos

See? You get it. Things happen not because people plan them, not because people WANT them. As the Great Philosopher Murphy observed, things happen because THEY CAN. You just lay out all the options, understand the factors that come to bear as resistance to or motivations for and suddenly predictions appear.

Clearly we can not afford to continue to be extorted by aliens in our own country. We have spent trillions on this and it does not buy peace. It only buys more of them.

Our gummint has increasingly become OUR enemy and has made extensive preparations to defend itself against us. We can rattle our sabers all we want but I think we have already passed the point of overthrowing our gummint to “Save the Republic”.

What option do we have but to take the next step to Empire?


77 posted on 10/14/2016 5:03:13 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This guy is insane, but we knew that.
98 Days!


78 posted on 10/14/2016 5:04:45 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s not “Free” money. It has to come from somewhere. There is a cost for everything.

I’m sure those still working will be taxed as such a high rate that they will eat up whatever benefit they get from UBI and then some. In other words, they’ll be worse off than before.

The whole point is to destroy morality and the work ethic.


79 posted on 10/14/2016 5:19:53 AM PDT by rbg81 (Truth is stranger than fiction)
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To: dfwgator

O, Has the thought of not enough people being able to find jobs to pay for your stupid funding scheme entered your scrawny brain yet? Ole Frank Marshall Davis obviously filled you brain with a lot of untested, useless junk. These are all socialis THEORIES which have failed miserably in the past you a$$wipe. And you KNOW your socialist buddies aren’t going to kick in a dime.


80 posted on 10/14/2016 5:28:11 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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