RE: Universal Basic Income Revisited: Maybe it's a NECESSITY, not a "Socialist Evil!"
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"I am simply asking the very basic question of how we're going to be able to live if the need for labor — which provides us with money to buy food and housing and so forth — is increasingly going away."
So was the population growth spun by individuals only having two kids, so, if all the jobs are going to increasingly be going away, the problem was already solved and massive immigration into the country wouldn't have been needed.
You didn't want to discuss or address the increased labor that would be needed to replace that which has declined, which is in the millions by 2035. Immigration addresses those needs as the adults come in to work, their children will age into the work force they project is going to be needed. So either someone is lying about how far advanced new technologies will reduce the work force, or the intent solely has to exist on the premise that the reduction in jobs has to also come with a reduction in wages to perform those remaining jobs, the same reason they let them come in now. I am going for the later.
Somebody is definitely lying. I have seen various government projections about jobs and the labor force, and they seem heavily biased by the idea that under no circumstances are economists going to confess to an actual need for the economy to shrink for a protracted period of time.
We have created a system in which "Growth is God" and to somehow admit that perhaps we don't actually need to grow is akin to telling the Pope that he doesn't need to be a Catholic. It's poking at the foundation of a way of doing things that is closing on 300 years old... but really started to take root as the previous system of feudalism started to come to an end.
Unless someone is actually planning to switch off automation and AI, humans will simply not be needed for possibly 50% of the tasks we call "working," today. And since the purpose of a corporation is to maximize profits, unless the governments/tax systems of the world are prepared to offer incentives to those who do NOT automate and replace their workers with AI... I fear many people are going to end up pretty much hosed. Maybe not this decade or next... maybe by 2050, or 2075...
I could be wrong, but I expect immigration works a bit like natural animal populations: People migrate where the (perceived) "food" is, and when that food is used up, they look for new places to migrate to.