To: MinorityRepublican
>>Everyone will go on welfare then.
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” - Lenin
3 posted on
08/23/2015 1:45:50 PM PDT by
Bryanw92
(Sic semper tyrannis)
To: Bryanw92
>>Everyone will go on welfare then.
The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them. - Lenin
Well, I stated in another thread (IIRC, a few others here made the same points too) where if this happens, we can go two ways out of pragmatism. The first way, I hat to say it, but we would have to go full bore socialist with everyone, who pass the means test, will get a guaranteed living wage. It would be enough for a 1 bedroom apartment, food, healthcare, utilities and so on plus maybe just enough to go out to dinner every so often or to have a small hobby. People will still have needs and in a post scarcity economy where most needs would be taken care of via automation this will change the paradigm so much, the old debate between socialism and capitalism will be rendered moot. If someone wants to make more than the wage given, then they will have to find a niche somehow where they can work and earn extra above that. It would be much like Star Trek The Next Generation where Picard's family had vineyards and wine making in France or Sisko's father had a restaurant in San Francisco. To fund the whole system most likely the automation machines and robots will have punitive licensing and registration fees (think of the taxi plaques in New York City) along with heavy taxes levied on the profits made from their production. (Almost) Everyone will be on welfare as you put it.
Idle hands are the Devil's Workshop so the second possibility is to make the registration and licensing fees plus taxation so punitive that it would be cheaper to hire people. It might have to go further, legislation will be passed to outlaw the use of automation and robots on jobs humans can do or to have machines require a human operator at all times. Exceptions might be for hazzardous duty like inspecting atomic reactors on the inside and space probes. Again, if I may used an example from science fiction, the original Battlestar Galactica took this route in the book story, in their case, there was that 1000 "yahren" tussle with the Cylons that was influential as well.
Another interesting aspect too was touched upon in Star Trek the Next Generation too. What if robots and androids and so forth get sentient and demand their rights as a human being. Data from Star Trek fought and got those rights. The Star Trek Voyager, the Holographic Doctor was a small part of the Holographs that were created to assert for their rights too. IIRC, all the old Holographic Doctors were relegated to mining when newer holographs took over, they were not too happy with that,
While we are still debating how the economy should be run, the questions will be changed rendering both side's answers obsolete.
18 posted on
08/23/2015 8:14:14 PM PDT by
Nowhere Man
("I wish we were back in the world of Andy Williams." - My mother, 1938-2013, RIP)
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