For those not up to speed about the urgency and reason for the discussion of a Universal Basic Income, this is a great video to start with:
The Universal Basic Income (UBI) is talked about more and more with the rise of automation around the world. What happens when everything a typical employee can do is performed by a machine with next to no oversight with much better results? Mass unemployment would occur with all of the jobs snatched up by machines and therefor those masses will go broke without any way to pay their own way in the automated economy - or would they? Without question automation, digitization, and decentralization will eliminate more jobs than they create. Repetitive and algorithmic work will not survive the 2020s, and the pressures can already be felt and more is to come within the next few years that will kill millions of jobs. With the repetitive and algorithmic work beginning to evaporate, and with extreme job loss in the next few years a UBI seems absolutely necessary for people to survive. When addressing the social issues that will be caused by automation, there is a very important need to focus on the future and how to transition into it yet, paradoxically, we tend to look at how we can continue past systems past this automation obstacle and the UBI is the main example of this. When examining the UBI proposition, a few assumptions are made:
- The UBI will be paid in a national currency.
- Taxation will be effective.
- The amount of UBI received by the end of the year to cover the basics will need to be several thousand dollars.
- Current commerce and market place functions will occur in the same manner as it does now.
Without thinking of it, these assumptions are made when discussing the implementation of a UBI scheme. We now live in a time with numerous digital currencies called alt-coins that do not have the same monetary issues as fiat currencies do, nor the same demand for institutions to process transactions. Since they can be highly anonymous, fast, and distributed; taxation is not a strategy that can just be written off as a way to fund a UBI. As a matter of fact, once a blockchain app becomes widely popular such as OpenBazaar: all forms of state funding will become ever more difficult to finance. Sales tax is a primary source of revenue for state programs, and when you factor in the near impossibility to control cryptocurrency transactions then do the math you have another economic disaster on your hands besides employment. States would only have property and income taxes to work with until those revenue sources are halted by another application.
It is absolutely imperative that a paradigm shift occurs from the social democracy era to a new system that does not rely on taxation and centralized distribution. Luckily, more and more people are being turned on by the new found freedoms and benefits new technology provides. Without a middle man in transactions: fees and costs will fade away, companies will save millions and thus have lower prices, inefficiencies will be close to nonexistent, security will be maximized, and censorship will be impractical for even top government agencies. With the friction of capitalism removed, costs will fall with them making products and services more affordable. Labor is usually the main expense for a company and with that minimized, no need for banks and insurance, and with no sales tax to top it all off just imagine the cost cuts. With the abundance that can be achieved and within a completely dynamic market, this needs to be considered when bringing up the need for a UBI.
The automation that does not take over drudgery now will take it over later, but there is room for humans if we play our cards right. Though we will never, ever, out compete the AI that exists even now we may still work side by side with AI or in areas where human activity is specifically valued. If the sharing economy hopes to survive, this must be taken into account. Uber drivers may be getting the short end of the stick with autonomous cars coming on the market, however a new job market exists for creative work (doing that very task right now!) and people will be able to do what they like for work. It's a common critique of the current labor market that voluntary jobs aren't actually voluntary because of the work or die paradigm and not having much else in the realm of job opportunities and thus a UBI is necessary in order for people to be able to say "no" and for that to be an effective choice. That may have been true before, but now that anybody can set up a Patreon and shamelessly promote themselves and work their own hours in the gig economy this becomes less and less true.
All in all when taking into consideration the evolution of the free market, there is plenty of ways to get by without a UBI due to the massive cost cuts brought on by automation and the removal of the middle man. A transition is needed from the current system of relying on taxes and distributing the revenue out and it will be best to move to the exits in a single file line before chaos ensues.
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