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I can totally see the appeal of basic income. I can even imagine a culture/economy where it works. What I don't understand at all right now is, how do we trans

by alex- 10y ago

I can totally see the appeal of basic income. I can even imagine a culture/economy where it works. What I don't understand at all right now is, how do we transition where we are now in such a direction? A change of this significance will not be implemented overnight. How do you start preparing the people and the economy of a nation to accept the idea that working is an option rather than a need? Making work optional for a subset of people will result in political divisions. Pushing the politics before the technology is established could damage the output of the nation as well as add friction to the initiative. Waiting until large parts of the population are economically redundant seems worse.

namlem 10y ago
The right way is to first focus on policies that reduce cost of living. Encourage affordable housing, lower healthcare costs, and build infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles. The first two of these step on too many toes though, and would be opposed, and the third requires a lot of money and time. The problem with housing is that it's been sold to people as an investment, and people don't want the price of their house to go down, which is exactly what would happen if you increased the supply of homes. So towns pass zoning laws to prohibit low cost housing in order to keep prices high. Governments need to step in to limit this type of regulation, so that more housing can be built. For healthcare, two things can help dramatically decrease the cost. One is end of life planning. Encouraging people to talk to their families and fill out the forms has save huge amounts of money in places that have managed to create a culture of planning. The second factor that could greatly reduce costs is automation. Updating regulations to permit for more autonomous diagnostics and allowing PAs and nurse practitioners to take on more duties from doctors with the aid of technology could significantly improve efficiency. Finally, highway lanes should be allocated for self-driving car fast lanes, where autonomous vehicles can travel at speeds of more than 100mph. This would allow for convenient fast transit from cheaper suburban an rural areas, and would reduce cost of living significantly.

by alex- 10y ago

namlem 10y ago

The right way is to first focus on policies that reduce cost of living. Encourage affordable housing, lower healthcare costs, and build infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles. The first two of these step on too many toes though, and would be opposed, and the third requires a lot of money and time. The problem with housing is that it's been sold to people as an investment, and people don't want the price of their house to go down, which is exactly what would happen if you increased the supply of homes. So towns pass zoning laws to prohibit low cost housing in order to keep prices high. Governments need to step in to limit this type of regulation, so that more housing can be built. For healthcare, two things can help dramatically decrease the cost. One is end of life planning. Encouraging people to talk to their families and fill out the forms has save huge amounts of money in places that have managed to create a culture of planning. The second factor that could greatly reduce costs is automation. Updating regulations to permit for more autonomous diagnostics and allowing PAs and nurse practitioners to take on more duties from doctors with the aid of technology could significantly improve efficiency. Finally, highway lanes should be allocated for self-driving car fast lanes, where autonomous vehicles can travel at speeds of more than 100mph. This would allow for convenient fast transit from cheaper suburban an rural areas, and would reduce cost of living significantly.