There is certainly no easy answer for the problem brewing and those who believe that talks about the upcoming change, the proliferation of automation, the decimation of low skill jobs, is nothing but fear mongering, are not really paying attention.
I won't lie, I've been going back and forth trying to understand both sides of the argument against and for UBI. And truthfully, the idea that if we were to implement it, all of the sudden everything would be well, is also somewhat unrealistic. In other words, in order for people to have emotional health, in order for them to retain their drive to do things, to grow, etc, they need a reason to do so, they need a mountain to climb, a gladiator to defeat.
We are wired this way, more so men. If a guy has no purpose, no job, on average of course, that man would feel depression and commence to partake of self destructive behaviors. It's connected to the idea of self worth, and social value and even though it's not entirely accurate to describe it as self removal from social judgement, it seems to be mostly the case.
I only talk about this so often, because it seems like we don't take it seriously enough and when I bring this up in casual conversation, I've noticed people recoiling, as if I'm losing a bit.
I can but don't want, to picture future where all of us live inside our bubbles, plugged to VR machines, being whoever we want online, but failing to realize things in the physical world. I hate imagining the health consequences that such thing would surely bring, but it seems to be that we are locked in for the course. Reading statistics on the matter doesn't help one but.
Interestingly enough, I've heard a few times this week ideas of social currency and time banks. Ways to assign value to things that are not currently commodities, like picking up trash in the beach, and even though some of those philosophical ramblings are enriching to me, I can't help but to tie that into what we are building in this new attention economy, this new social media movement mixed with cryptocurrency.
Too much thinking for a morning I guess, but sometimes I can't help it.
