Enacting a basic income for all Americans

Now let me preface this post by saying I'm not trying to get support for this here. I'm using this article to Segway the conversation so mods please let me know what you think.

The truth is the rest of the world is catching up to and surpassing the west educationally creating a larger worker force. Add to the problem automation and we have a situation were it takes fewer and fewer people to care for more and more people.

So now what is the majority of the population suppose to do when it only takes a small minority of the population to take care of the needs of the majority.

As many of you are well aware it's harder and harder to run a small business in this country everyday due to inflation and purchasing power of the dollar. It's also harder and harder to do because there is less and less money circulating around our local economies available for our goods and services.

Income inequality in the United States has risen sharply in recent years and continues to get worse. Widespread unemployment is becoming imminent, as more and more traditional jobs are replaced by technology and automation. Without serious intervention, we could face massive increases in poverty and civil unrest in the years ahead.

source

a reply to: onequestion

It sounds exactly like what the left/Obama is working towards. The trouble being, in exchange for that 'income' rules, regulations and compliance is required to continue receiving that income...or health care...so on.

I'll pass thanks.

We're heading into a world where those who are needed in the workforce are those with highly specialized skills and well to be honest I think that even our education can have a large portion of it computerized and automated reducing the number of workers needed within it. There was an article headline I passed by today saying basically that manufacturing is returning to the US but it will be automated. The time might just come were we can replace our congress and president with computer programs along with the techs that are needed to ensure that the machines are running up to par and maybe a few to ensure that the programs aren't kicking out insanity. So if we get to the point where everything is produced through machines with just a small portion of the population being needed to ensure that all is running properly, well, what would be our choices? Another interesting question would be just how much closer could we have been at if we could just throw aside our current way of thinking where one has to work a 40 or more hour work to earn the money to buy the products that we need to live. If we continue along on the path we are going, well, how are the 90 or so percent that aren't needed in the workforce supposed to life and more importantly consume what is being produced through the automation with the oversight of the 10%? If we just let them die off seeing them as unneeded, well why have all the automation pumping out the many products wouldn't we just eliminating many of that 10% from the workforce also?

The more we automate, the smaller our population needs to be. We simply can't have a huge chunk of the population sitting around doing nothing because we've designed robots to do it for us.

I hate to say it ... but people probably need to not have 5 kids and whatnot. We don't live on farms anymore, we don't need to breed in order to have a ready-made workforce.

This is with sarc/on,

Just tax the machinery × number of workers displaced and there's your funds, I call it "The couch potato income act"



Add, make it a UN mandate to level the playing field worldwide.

Getting something for nothing.

How very "progressive" sounding.

"You can't win against Santa Claus."

I personally believe Basic Income is an eventuality that will come to pass within the next 20 years. Moore's law continues to bring exponential innovation unchecked, and as technology improves, more work will be done via automation or AI.

I also believe it will be a point of major contention in the history of the nations as they move toward it.

With these issues coming in it's probably time for the "harvest" (Jupiter ascending).

What happens when the people who work to support the people who do not decide to stop supporting them or join them? How can you get something from nothing? This doesn't end in a utopian future for all, it will most likely end in dystopian future based on the way things are going.

originally posted by: anotherdaytoday
With these issues coming in it's probably time for the "harvest" (Jupiter ascending).

You know that most motion pictures are fiction right? The harvest isn't real. Come out from your bed.

Its by design. Globalist robber barons must profit on cheap labor and loose labor laws. The USA economy must be cannabilized in order for profits to continue griwing at 30%

reply to: onequestion

originally posted by: SpaDe_
What happens when the people who work to support the people who do not decide to stop supporting them or join them? How can you get something from nothing? This doesn't end in a utopian future for all, it will most likely end in dystopian future based on the way things are going.

In the future, when nearly everything is run and produced via automation and AI, only high skilled people with a drive to succeed will want, and fill jobs. You act as if once humans don't HAVE to work, humanity will degenerate into some dystopian hell hole with no hope of escape. There's a reason why people, after retirement, don't just melt into their couch and become one with the living room. They get bored, they want to create, or play. It's natural human tendency to want to stay busy, work, and play. Just because the NEED for work goes away, doesn't mean people won't still innovate, create, learn, and be HUMAN.

I think we're already seeing a paradigm shift in the newer generations that are coming through the ranks.

At least in the industrial democracies of the world, populations seem to be slowing down, birth rates are dropping. More and more people in the 20's aren't so sure about having kids as their predecessors.

I think if you combine egocentrics with an unstable world economy, you're going to get a generation of people who aren't sure having a kid or two is really worth it.

The headline reads Half of America is $400 Away From Financial Disaster:

About half of Americans are saving no more than 5% of their incomes, according to Bankrate. Roughly one in five (18%) are saving nothing at all, and another 28% are saving only 5% of their annual income or less.

A study by the Federal Reserve found that 47% of consumers could not cover an emergency expense costing $400, or would have to cover it by either selling something or borrowing money.

According to a survey fielded by BMO Harris, 29% of Americans say that whatever they’ve got scraped together in their rainy day fund would last them no more than one month. One in five confess they would need to dip into their retirement savings in a financial emergency (and that’s probably most of those who have any money saved for retirement).

This is serious guys -- this is really not a good sign. I can understand now why my friends in the mid-20's and newly married aren't having kids right not.

Let me repeat once more what the Federal Reserve's study said: 47% of consumers could not cover an emergency expense costing $400, or would have to cover it by either selling something or borrowing money

I guess personal responsibility has left the building.

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

Your vision is far from reality. Once you remove the rose colored lenses it will become all too clear how things really are and how they will really be. Some people are born dreamers, clearly you are one of them.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I live mostly from paycheck to paycheck. I set aside a little every month for savings, but for the most part the study is absolutely correct. I don't even know if I save even 5% of my annual earnings. And I'm not looking to get married or have kids in the near future.

That is why there is a push for transhumanism,the NEED to modify to compete against others in an advaced tech economy.
In order to process all the neccessary data and be productive in any firld eventually ,toss in AI systems as well.

a reply to: dawnstar

Great points and questions.

Those who don't understand that this is already happening are the ones talking about left this or liberal that.

It's already happenjng but it's masked as unemployment, low wage jobs, global integration, food stamps, welfare and so on and so forth.

The idea of a job is dieing a slow death.

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun

originally posted by: anotherdaytoday
With these issues coming in it's probably time for the "harvest" (Jupiter ascending).

You know that most motion pictures are fiction right? The harvest isn't real. Come out from your bed.

It is real. Or prove me wrong.

a reply to: onequestion

I still subscribe to the idea that, if you guarantee minimum amounts of money for doing something, you are supporting the apathetic nature that I see as becoming so prevalent in many people in America. It removes, quite often, the motivation or desire to do better if you can just get comfortable scraping by.

The threat of living poor, being homeless, not being able to provide for your family, etc., is a real motivating factor to not just have a job, but to continue to rise on the income ladder.

Guaranteed minimum anything that is offered by the government is not good for societies as a whole.