Content adapted from this Zerohedge.com article : Source
Elon Musk warns about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Add Andrew Yang to the list of people who are not thrilled about the advancements of automation - specifically self-driving cars.
Mr. Yang is launching a campaign to run on the Democratic platform in 2020.
One New York businessman is mounting what the New York Times describes as a "longer-than-long-shot" bid for the Democratic on a platform that has never before existed in mainstream American politics: America needs to embrace radical change to prevent AI and automation from thrusting millions of Americans into poverty.
His name is Andrew Yang, and he recently founded the organization Venture for America as he gears up for a 2020 run. Yang's philosophy is simple: America needs to radically restructure its society to prevent robots from causing Great Depression-level unemployment...
Yang is a universal basic income supporter, a system he terms "Freedom Dividend". His timing could be impeccable with many in the technology sector calling for this type of program. These technological leaders concluded that a large increase in unemployment due to technology is all but certain.
Mr Yang proposes-
To fend off the coming robots, Mr. Yang is pushing what he calls a “Freedom Dividend,” a monthly check for $1,000 that would be sent to every American from age 18 to 64, regardless of income or employment status. These payments, he says, would bring everyone in America up to approximately the poverty line, even if they were directly hit by automation. Medicare and Medicaid would be unaffected under Mr. Yang’s plan, but people receiving government benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could choose to continue receiving those benefits, or take the $1,000 monthly payments instead.
His reasoning-
"All you need is self-driving cars to destabilize society," Mr. Yang, 43, said over lunch at a Thai restaurant in Manhattan last month, in his first interview about his campaign. In just a few years, he said, "we're going to have a million truck drivers out of work who are 94 percent male, with an average level of education of high school or one year of college."
"That one innovation," he continued, "will be enough to create riots in the street. And we're about to do the same thing to retail workers, call center workers, fast-food workers, insurance companies, accounting firms."
The insight about Trump carrying states with highest automation is very interesting and I would love to see some real analysis on that.
Alarmist? Sure. But Mr. Yang's doomsday prophecy echoes the concerns of a growing number of labor economists and tech experts who are worried about the coming economic consequences of automation.
Does Mr Yang have a chance? As President Trump showed two years ago, do not count anyone out.
Non-adapted content of this zerohedge.com article: Source
Disclaimer : Account 