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"Support a $15 minimum wage, support the future!" https://www.facebook.com/Robots4MinimumWage https://www.facebook.com/Robots4MinimumWage

• toomuchtodo 11y ago
  * Increase minimum wage * Support the continuing automation of jobs away * Tax the income stream from automation and use it to provide strong social safety nets
  • jgmmo 11y ago
    "Tax the income stream from automation" This should be covered by corporate income tax, no?
    • savanaly 11y ago
      Better yet a healthy consumption tax.
      • toomuchtodo 11y ago
        Consumption taxes are typically regressive, and overly impact low-income consumers.
        • crdoconnor 11y ago
          They're always regressive. That's why the rich love them.
        • savanaly 11y ago
          Forgive my ignorance but how are they regressive? If you tax the money people spend and the rich spend more, that's neither regressive or progressive right? And to get the right amount of progressiveness we could just adjust the percentage tax on luxury items.
    • toomuchtodo 11y ago
      It should be, but right now we give tax breaks for capital expenditures (software, robotics, the things eating the world's labor market). Also, it doesn't work if you can get your effective tax rate down to zero through loopholes.
  • mason240 11y ago
    That's what Basic Income is.
    • toomuchtodo 11y ago
      That's my underlying point. Everyone complains that the minimum wage is going to drive more work to automation. Good. That's exactly what it should do. Those efficiency gains fund a basic income. I can envision a future where we have two tiers of income. One for basic necessities everyone gets, and another "luxury" tier, for services and goods not necessary to survive.
      • kasey_junk 11y ago
        You can make a pretty compelling argument that we are already at a two tiered system (at least in the west). The problem is the definition of "basic necessities". Imagine that functional immortality becomes a possibility. Does it fall into the "basic" tier or the "luxury" tier. Drawing those lines is precisely what we are doing everyday with politics.
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      • greggyb 11y ago
        Is it an efficiency gain if it is only viable by pricing out the best alternative?
        • toomuchtodo 11y ago
          Yes. We don't consider slavery a viable labor option, so why would be consider paying people substandard wages any different?
          • 11y ago
• crdoconnor 11y ago
  More FUD by the National Association for the protection of restaurant profits : http://badideaca.com/img/ipad-ad-slider.jpg http://badideaca.com/img/ipad-ad-slider.jpg I'm holding my breath waiting for a robot that can really clean my house (not a roomba). Any. Day. Now. Economists are always telling me that robots are going to start taking over all jobs everywhere. Given their stellar record of predicting economic outcomes, why wouldn't we believe their technological predictions?
  • BrandonMarc 11y ago
    Forget the economists. Try this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU http://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/humans-need-not-apply http://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/humans-need-not-apply Another bedtime story: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolu...