3 ms·

I think this ignores the most important question of all: Given the rises in automation, how do we avoid adding up in a Hunger Games-esque future? And before an

by st3v3r 10y ago

I think this ignores the most important question of all: Given the rises in automation, how do we avoid adding up in a Hunger Games-esque future? And before anyone says UBI: Do you honestly think that Paul Ryan, who is planning on gutting Social Security and Medicare right this second, would go along with that? UBI is going to be off the table for at least 20 years.

dragonwriter 10y ago
> I think this ignores the most important question of all: Given the rises in automation, how do we avoid adding up in a Hunger Games-esque future? Unconditional Basic Income, or something very similar. > And before anyone says UBI: Do you honestly think that Paul Ryan, who is planning on gutting Social Security and Medicare right this second, would go along with that? Probably not. Paul Ryan remaining in a position to exert decisive control over policy and avoiding a dystopian future may well be mutually exclusive options. > UBI is going to be off the table for at least 20 years. Congressional and Presidential elections are much more frequent than that and can result in sudden and dramatic reversal of policy direction, especially in the face of widespread economic concerns. Sufficient economic pain, historically and globally speaking, has also been known to provoke large and fundamental political change outside of normal electoral timelines and succession processes.
- jonathankoren 10y ago
  >Congressional and Presidential elections are much more frequent than that and can result in sudden and dramatic reversal of policy direction, especially in the face of widespread economic concerns. The frequency of elections is immaterial in the era of uber-gerrymandering and population migration. Censuses are every 10 years.
abecedarius 10y ago
Milton Friedman proposed something like a UBI back in the 1950s (a "negative income tax"), and he has cachet with some Republicans.
- 0xcde4c3db 10y ago
  Advocates of a UBI sometimes balk at this, saying that it's not universal. I think it boils down to a difference in how you label the income (as a tax credit versus being a separate payment).

by st3v3r 10y ago

dragonwriter 10y ago

> I think this ignores the most important question of all: Given the rises in automation, how do we avoid adding up in a Hunger Games-esque future? Unconditional Basic Income, or something very similar. > And before anyone says UBI: Do you honestly think that Paul Ryan, who is planning on gutting Social Security and Medicare right this second, would go along with that? Probably not. Paul Ryan remaining in a position to exert decisive control over policy and avoiding a dystopian future may well be mutually exclusive options. > UBI is going to be off the table for at least 20 years. Congressional and Presidential elections are much more frequent than that and can result in sudden and dramatic reversal of policy direction, especially in the face of widespread economic concerns. Sufficient economic pain, historically and globally speaking, has also been known to provoke large and fundamental political change outside of normal electoral timelines and succession processes.

jonathankoren 10y ago
>Congressional and Presidential elections are much more frequent than that and can result in sudden and dramatic reversal of policy direction, especially in the face of widespread economic concerns. The frequency of elections is immaterial in the era of uber-gerrymandering and population migration. Censuses are every 10 years.

abecedarius 10y ago

Milton Friedman proposed something like a UBI back in the 1950s (a "negative income tax"), and he has cachet with some Republicans.

0xcde4c3db 10y ago
Advocates of a UBI sometimes balk at this, saying that it's not universal. I think it boils down to a difference in how you label the income (as a tax credit versus being a separate payment).