Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

ElvisArcher t1_j28nghd wrote

The math doesn't add up. Literally. A UBI of $1k per-month per-citizen would cost the federal government more than the sum total of all income tax collected every year.

Is it nice to dream of a post-scarcity society where all your basic needs and luxuries are provided? Yeah. It is.

1

Clean_Livlng t1_j2c7z36 wrote

It will happen if the alternative is worse. Tax will need to increase a lot to fund it, specifically aimed at the corporations that have automated most of the human jobs. The corporations may want to comply, since otherwise few people would have the money to buy their products. 'consumer' becomes a job, and the job description is to just go and buy things with the money you're given.

In a situation in which enough jobs have become automated and not replaced by other jobs, the alternative is chaos. If that doesn't happen, then we don't need UBI. If AI progress is fast enough, we might not have enough of a transition period to need UBI.

1

ElvisArcher t1_j2dj1l8 wrote

Right. What you describe is a post-scarcity society. One in which the citizens essentially do nothing but exist in a world where everything is automated.

This is something that may one day be achievable through innovation, but attempting to legislate it into reality before then is ... well ... in politics they might call that the tail wagging the dog.

A post-scarcity society is inevitable if technology continues to advance, but UBI still sounds like forcing the issue before it is feasible. You want this future ... I want this future, too.

1