2 ms·

I think it will work fine for about two generations. People who've developed a career will probably still work, since much of the hard work is done. And there

by gozur88 11y ago

I think it will work fine for about two generations. People who've developed a career will probably still work, since much of the hard work is done. And there's a cultural push toward work. But culture follows the facts on the ground. Over time the concept of a work ethic will erode away. I suspect once it becomes acceptable to not work a whole lot of people will be perfectly happy smoking pot and playing video games. It won't take that many to break the system.

hwstar 11y ago
At the end of 2 generations, people may not need to work or 50+% of them will be forced into permanent unemployment. What do you do in that case? Does the state toss democracy out the window by culling the unemployable? Does the state implement basic income to prevent such a tragedy from occurring?
- gozur88 11y ago
  >At the end of 2 generations, people may not need to work or 50+% of them will be forced into permanent unemployment. Or maybe not. People have been predicting that for hundreds of years, and it still hasn't happened. >What do you do in that case? Does the state toss democracy out the window by culling the unemployable? Does the state implement basic income to prevent such a tragedy from occurring? The problem is UBI might cause big problems in the absence of any other problems. Certainly if labor becomes mostly worthless I'd consider it, but that's certainly not the case just yet.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> I suspect once it becomes acceptable to not work a whole lot of people will be perfectly happy smoking pot and playing video games. It won't take that many to break the system. If the system is constructed so that increasing defections from taxable-income-generating activity (which isn't just work -- capital income, after all, is taxed as well) decrease the real value of UBI (and, thus, the attractiveness of forgoing such activity in favor of other pursuits), then this tendency will be controlled and constrained within the ability of the productivity of the active economy to support. As discussed in other subthreads of this thread, this kind of negative feedback is actually quite easy to build into a UBI system.
- gozur88 11y ago
  >As discussed in other subthreads of this thread, this kind of negative feedback is actually quite easy to build into a UBI system. So you might end up with a situation where people who've never held a job and have no marketable skills find, in their late twenties or thirties, that UBI is no longer enough to make ends meet. That sounds like a recipe for revolution.

by gozur88 11y ago

hwstar 11y ago

At the end of 2 generations, people may not need to work or 50+% of them will be forced into permanent unemployment. What do you do in that case? Does the state toss democracy out the window by culling the unemployable? Does the state implement basic income to prevent such a tragedy from occurring?

gozur88 11y ago
>At the end of 2 generations, people may not need to work or 50+% of them will be forced into permanent unemployment. Or maybe not. People have been predicting that for hundreds of years, and it still hasn't happened. >What do you do in that case? Does the state toss democracy out the window by culling the unemployable? Does the state implement basic income to prevent such a tragedy from occurring? The problem is UBI might cause big problems in the absence of any other problems. Certainly if labor becomes mostly worthless I'd consider it, but that's certainly not the case just yet.

dragonwriter 11y ago

> I suspect once it becomes acceptable to not work a whole lot of people will be perfectly happy smoking pot and playing video games. It won't take that many to break the system. If the system is constructed so that increasing defections from taxable-income-generating activity (which isn't just work -- capital income, after all, is taxed as well) decrease the real value of UBI (and, thus, the attractiveness of forgoing such activity in favor of other pursuits), then this tendency will be controlled and constrained within the ability of the productivity of the active economy to support. As discussed in other subthreads of this thread, this kind of negative feedback is actually quite easy to build into a UBI system.

gozur88 11y ago
>As discussed in other subthreads of this thread, this kind of negative feedback is actually quite easy to build into a UBI system. So you might end up with a situation where people who've never held a job and have no marketable skills find, in their late twenties or thirties, that UBI is no longer enough to make ends meet. That sounds like a recipe for revolution.