Coming to a country near you...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-guaranteed-income-for-every-american-1464969586
And from a mildly surprising source...Charles Murray.
I haven’t read it yet, but I was just talking about this with my son this morning.
I could take that $15,000 a year (more or less), get a tiny apartment, use public transportation, and spend my days either in libraries learning stuff, exercising, or doing charity work. However, not everyone is a Franciscan at heart.
Charles Murray sees a massive wave of dislocation and unemployment coming due to automation and robotics. I’ve been very concerned about the same thing. It’s unlike past technological change due to the rapidity of onset. It appears that gainful employment will be increasingly difficult to find for wide swathes of people, even among professional, white collar ranks. This lost employment needs to be replaced somehow, or a very large number of people will need to have another means of supporting themselves. That’s what has led to revived discussion about implementing UBI or Universal Basic Income. Agree or disagree, this or something like this is looking increasingly likely in the future. I see tremendous pitfalls myself, but also see that there may be little in the way of other options.
“First, my big caveat: A Universal Basic Income will do the good things I claim only if it replaces all other transfer payments and the bureaucracies that oversee them.” (Charles Murray)
I don’t know why he bothered to write his book or this article, after that, (except for pay), because this possibility is no more realistic than an episode of “Doctor Who” or “Supernatural.”