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The Basic Income ship has already sailed, and it's not coming back any time soon. The main reason for this is the fact that automation is here to stay. Every da

The Basic Income ship has already sailed, and it's not coming back any time soon. The main reason for this is the fact that automation is here to stay. Every day new systems are being automated, first replacing low-skilled, low-wage jobs. People in these job don't really have much power, knowledge, will nor money to push the BIG agenda. Often times, they are not even aware that such thing is being proposed. People in better paying jobs are also being slowly replaced, but they rarely see this as threat to their jobs, but more like productivity improvement. When some tradesmen, or engineer loses a job because of automation, they first try to work on their skills to stay relevant in the field. They usually won't blame automation for being unemployed, but instead they blame their age, lack of specific new skills, outsourcing or the economy. Without a well paying job, they quickly drop from the affluent middle class to a poor low class. In the mean time, their peers don't see what the real reason for this is, and they happily continue working, hoping that it's not going to happen in their case. They have no incentives to support BIG as they already believe that a lot of taxes go to support the lower classes, and put unfair strain on them. This shift from middle to low class, is already happening. To keep themselves safe, the high middle class, and the 1%'s will support militarization of police, and push even more entertainment options to the masses. People will rarely revolt, as it's easy to imagine that if you're a father and see your kids starving, you will either work even harder trying to support your family, or you'll drink, do drugs and abuse the kids because you may feel that you failed, and you will try to hide this feeling not only from them but from yourself.

placeybordeaux 11y ago
What you describe is worryingly reasonable, however I don't see how it leads to the conclusion that the basic income ship has sailed. Current US politics is still very "job creation" centered. Some think tanks need to start churning out pieces to shift public opinion that the number of over all jobs has permanently decreased and separate that from the idea that this is an indicator of our economy doing poorly. From there it is fairly simple to start convincing people that with a good economy and not enough jobs to go around we need to still ensure that everyone has the basic necessities of life.
- mariusz79 11y ago
  The ship has sailed, in my opinion, because these people who could/should be behind it right now, will have no leverage, and people who don't need to get behind it now, but will in a few years, will lose that leverage before they realize what happened
blazespin 11y ago
The problem with basic income is that idle hands do the devils work. Without labor of some kind, kids get into trouble. What we need is basic income in exchange for going to school. Get rid of welfare / foodstamps, but if you can prove you are educating yourself (relative to your education level) you can get a minimum income.
- mariusz79 11y ago
  True. I think that if basic income is ever implemented, it will happen simply to control the masses.
- jellicle 11y ago
  What do you propose to do about the idle rich who inherit large sums and thus never need to work? Or people who marry rich spouses?
acdha 11y ago
Those are some very sweeping claims and they'd need some explanation of why this time will be unlike all of recorded history. Labor protection, minimum wage, a 40 hour work week, etc. all happened after long periods of misery for people who would have been just as erroneously dismissed as not really having the “power, knowledge, will nor money to push the BIG agenda”.
- Zigurd 11y ago
  I don't see the OP counting out "misery." Mincome will happen when the rest of the people start eating the rich.
  - nazgul17 11y ago
    If the rich can delay that moment for long enough, they will not only own automated truck drivers, but also automated armies. The poor will be in a strong disadvantage.
- mariusz79 11y ago
  There was a lot written about this by smarter and more articulate people, and I'm sure you can google it, if you really want to know.. From myself I can only add my observations, as someone who works in automation. It's simple really - technology to automate a lot of jobs it already here. In most cases it's very economic to automate the jobs, and doesn't really take long. Many more companies are moving in that direction. However, some government contractors are required to have a specific number of employees. They get tax incentives to keep people working. That's holding back automation.. And there is one more reason - a lot of small companies, which are still majority of the economy, are run by older guys that are afraid of big changes, and afraid of technology. Their businesses work, and bring money, and they will not implement any changes until they absolutely have to. As the demographics shift, and people who are more open to automation come aboard automation will speed up.
grapevines 11y ago
The Basic Income ship has not sailed. Social networks of the future will divulge a percentage of their profits back to active users. I know because I am building one as we speak. Now that you know my platform's secret, you can race me to zero.
- mariusz79 11y ago
  Where is your /sarc tag? If you manage to build something comparable to fb, and your profits will be around $700mln with 1.4 billion users, you will be able to pay each user 50 cents.. whoa... BIG is now a real possibility!

placeybordeaux 11y ago

What you describe is worryingly reasonable, however I don't see how it leads to the conclusion that the basic income ship has sailed. Current US politics is still very "job creation" centered. Some think tanks need to start churning out pieces to shift public opinion that the number of over all jobs has permanently decreased and separate that from the idea that this is an indicator of our economy doing poorly. From there it is fairly simple to start convincing people that with a good economy and not enough jobs to go around we need to still ensure that everyone has the basic necessities of life.

mariusz79 11y ago
The ship has sailed, in my opinion, because these people who could/should be behind it right now, will have no leverage, and people who don't need to get behind it now, but will in a few years, will lose that leverage before they realize what happened

blazespin 11y ago

The problem with basic income is that idle hands do the devils work. Without labor of some kind, kids get into trouble. What we need is basic income in exchange for going to school. Get rid of welfare / foodstamps, but if you can prove you are educating yourself (relative to your education level) you can get a minimum income.

mariusz79 11y ago
True. I think that if basic income is ever implemented, it will happen simply to control the masses.
jellicle 11y ago
What do you propose to do about the idle rich who inherit large sums and thus never need to work? Or people who marry rich spouses?

acdha 11y ago

Those are some very sweeping claims and they'd need some explanation of why this time will be unlike all of recorded history. Labor protection, minimum wage, a 40 hour work week, etc. all happened after long periods of misery for people who would have been just as erroneously dismissed as not really having the “power, knowledge, will nor money to push the BIG agenda”.

Zigurd 11y ago
I don't see the OP counting out "misery." Mincome will happen when the rest of the people start eating the rich.
- nazgul17 11y ago
  If the rich can delay that moment for long enough, they will not only own automated truck drivers, but also automated armies. The poor will be in a strong disadvantage.
mariusz79 11y ago
There was a lot written about this by smarter and more articulate people, and I'm sure you can google it, if you really want to know.. From myself I can only add my observations, as someone who works in automation. It's simple really - technology to automate a lot of jobs it already here. In most cases it's very economic to automate the jobs, and doesn't really take long. Many more companies are moving in that direction. However, some government contractors are required to have a specific number of employees. They get tax incentives to keep people working. That's holding back automation.. And there is one more reason - a lot of small companies, which are still majority of the economy, are run by older guys that are afraid of big changes, and afraid of technology. Their businesses work, and bring money, and they will not implement any changes until they absolutely have to. As the demographics shift, and people who are more open to automation come aboard automation will speed up.

grapevines 11y ago

The Basic Income ship has not sailed. Social networks of the future will divulge a percentage of their profits back to active users. I know because I am building one as we speak. Now that you know my platform's secret, you can race me to zero.

mariusz79 11y ago
Where is your /sarc tag? If you manage to build something comparable to fb, and your profits will be around $700mln with 1.4 billion users, you will be able to pay each user 50 cents.. whoa... BIG is now a real possibility!