4 ms·

Will a guaranteed income ever come to America?

18 points by lvevjo 13y ago

patatino 13y ago
"Early polls indicate that more than 45 percent of Swiss voters will support the initiative." That's an online poll with 1016 votes at the moment. I'm swiss and can tell you this will get 80% no votes. We voted two years ago if we want 6 weeks of vacations instead of 4 resulting in 66% no votes. Swiss people like to work. We are raised with the believe that work is our strongest asset because we have zero resources. I tried to talk to ~10 people so far about this topic. No one consider it seriously to even talk about it. We're just not ready yet.
Houshalter 13y ago
I think so. When automation causes vast unemployment, it will become a real issue and people will demand it.
jal278 13y ago
Interesting difference of opinion: "According to the World Values Survey, 60 percent of Americans believe that the poor could become rich if they just tried hard enough. In Europe, however, the number of individuals who hold similar beliefs is only half as large. In Brazil, a mere 19 percent believe that poverty stems from laziness rather than circumstances, connections and luck."
eli_gottlieb 13y ago
You pass a guaranteed income, and/or I will make it my life's mission to automate all your jobs away until you do so. Your move.
dm2 13y ago
Once there is a post-scarcity society then jobs will not be required. If you can throw in some trash into a "replicator" and have it 3D print anything you want, then what more do you need other than some raw material, shelter, and utilities? Jobs of the future will be because people want to work for more things, fun, or to help humanity. The loss of jobs due to automation will hopefully be countered by post-scarcity, we need to invest more into developing the technology to make this happen so that the gap between loss of employment and the lack of needing employment is minimized. Otherwise, things could go downhill very fast and many people will suffer. http://www.basicincome.org/bien/papers.html http://www.basicincome.org/bien/papers.html

18 points by lvevjo 13y ago

"Early polls indicate that more than 45 percent of Swiss voters will support the initiative." That's an online poll with 1016 votes at the moment. I'm swiss and can tell you this will get 80% no votes. We voted two years ago if we want 6 weeks of vacations instead of 4 resulting in 66% no votes. Swiss people like to work. We are raised with the believe that work is our strongest asset because we have zero resources. I tried to talk to ~10 people so far about this topic. No one consider it seriously to even talk about it. We're just not ready yet.

Houshalter 13y ago

I think so. When automation causes vast unemployment, it will become a real issue and people will demand it.

jal278 13y ago

Interesting difference of opinion: "According to the World Values Survey, 60 percent of Americans believe that the poor could become rich if they just tried hard enough. In Europe, however, the number of individuals who hold similar beliefs is only half as large. In Brazil, a mere 19 percent believe that poverty stems from laziness rather than circumstances, connections and luck."

eli_gottlieb 13y ago

You pass a guaranteed income, and/or I will make it my life's mission to automate all your jobs away until you do so. Your move.

dm2 13y ago

Once there is a post-scarcity society then jobs will not be required. If you can throw in some trash into a "replicator" and have it 3D print anything you want, then what more do you need other than some raw material, shelter, and utilities? Jobs of the future will be because people want to work for more things, fun, or to help humanity. The loss of jobs due to automation will hopefully be countered by post-scarcity, we need to invest more into developing the technology to make this happen so that the gap between loss of employment and the lack of needing employment is minimized. Otherwise, things could go downhill very fast and many people will suffer. http://www.basicincome.org/bien/papers.html http://www.basicincome.org/bien/papers.html