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And, yet, your out of hand dismissal fits very well with my assumption that you aren't actually interested in hearing a solution other than UBI. I am not betti
by Mz 9y ago
And, yet, your out of hand dismissal fits very well with my assumption that you aren't actually interested in hearing a solution other than UBI.
I am not betting on a political, ideological or moral change. Whether we establish a UBI or go with something akin to my above proposals, these are equally political solutions. Neither will happen without a great many people working to make it happen.
The only question is what kind of future do we want? I think UBI makes no sense and will not work. Universal basic health care would be vastly easier to implement, if only because it has already be done in multiple other countries, so we have models to borrow from. Yet, people think that is a bridge too far and will not happen.
So, to me, the good news is that UBI is unlikely to happen and Gig Work is already on the rise, such as Uber, writing services and delivery services. The challenge here is just getting the word out that such services need to be a win-win scenario for both company and workers.
I am already living this reality. Gig Work has been an ideal solution in the face of a medical situation that makes a normal job not work for me. So, I know firsthand that Gig Work can be a terrific option for the worker if it isn't designed to screw over the little guy.
That can totally coexist alongside factories with very few workers. The rise of the machines does not have to be a terrible thing for humanity. The Industrial Revolution raised standards of living and quality of life across the board. There is no reason The Second Industrial Revolution cannot do the same.
But we do need to set that as a goal and work towards it. My only real concern is that, currently, some very rich and powerful people do not see the 99 percent as actual human beings. They see them as sheeple. And the solutions that grow out of such contempt tend to be self fulfilling prophesies that force powerless people into the narrative imposed on them from high.
- ThomPete 9y agoWhat out of hand dismissal? I am intersted in hearing actual solutions not wishful thinking based on the idea that humans decide themselves when we obviously don't. If you want to argue that then I have already asked you how that would happen given the reality we live in. Gig-work will also be replaced by technology either through digitalization or automation. 95% of jobs created since 2010 are temp jobs i.e. part of the gig-economy, that's obviously not sustainable as there isn't any rise in salaries while as I said the cost of living is rising. So again unless you believe that technology is not going to take the jobs
- Mz 9y agoCalling it wishful thinking is incredibly dismissive and contemptuous. If you were genuinely interested, you could read the multiple articles I have already written and linked to. I don't think you have bothered to do that. I see no reason to engage further.
- ThomPete 9y agoI call it that because you haven't actually answered the question I asked you with regards to why people would choose that over technology. Keep in mind you are the one who claimed that we can just design things the way we want them, yet you haven't actually provided anything close to an argument here. That the gig-economy works for you is great, it's just not an actual argument and it's definitely not an argument against UBI. Furthermore if you can't actually formulate your own thinking in a comment but are so lazy that you just point me to go read something you are actually showing who isn't really genuinely intersted in this debate.
- dang 9y agoThis crosses into personal attack. You can't do that here, regardless of how wrong or annoying someone else's comment is, and we ban accounts that do it repeatedly. Would you please (re)-read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and fix this?
- ThomPete 9y agoI have been participating on HN for years never been accused of that before. What exactly are you referring to? Furthermore I can't fix anything as I can't edit.
- dang 9y agoI'm referring to the personal swipes in "if you can't actually formulate your own thinking in a comment but are so lazy", etc. Yes, there's an "if", but it's still unduly personal. That's why I said "crosses into" rather than "is". By "fix" I just mean editing that kind of thing out in the future. Shouldn't be hard. And thanks for being an excellent HN contributor!