4 ms·
The issue is not whether people will become lazy if they get free money. If jobs are going to disappear they'll disappear, fewer people will be able to work unl
by seaknoll 9y ago
The issue is not whether people will become lazy if they get free money. If jobs are going to disappear they'll disappear, fewer people will be able to work unless somehow the workforce disappears too. The real question is how will we handle it when those jobs do disappear.
My gut tells me that Europe will embrace shorter work weeks and basic income, but in the US where we love to see people being punished for perceived failure to pull oneself up by bootstraps and other moral failures, and to promote businesses over the welfare of citizens, we'll find a way to justify laborers fighting over peanuts.
- JumpCrisscross 9y agoThe only solutions are to subsidise or quarantine peoples' existences. The former means basic income (or something like it). The latter means erecting borders between the rich and the poor. We sort of do the latter today, between rich countries and poor ones. Extending the analogy to e.g. America versus not-America, or New York City and the Bay Area versus Middle America, or any other configuration seems conceivable.
- seaknoll 9y agoAbsolutely these things could be decided on a local level vs. nationwide. Pretty consistent with my speculation that the federal government shouldn't be relied upon to protect a basic standard of living.