Universal Basic Income
Some facts and opinions for you to consider:
“71% of the world’s population lives on less than $10 a day… Globally, the majority of people live on about $3 a day.” - CNN
” Robots will take all human jobs, and under the current economy, that’s going to be a disaster. We have to accommodate perpetual vacation for humans.” - Marshall Brain
“If a human worker does $50,000 of work in a factory, that income is taxed,” Gates said in an interview with Quartz. “If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think we’d tax the robot at a similar level.
Elon Musk now says that universal basic income (UBI) — essentially, free cash handouts — “will be necessary over time if AI [artificial intelligence] takes over most human jobs.”... In November 2016, Musk himself told CNBC automation would lead to the need for cash handouts.”
Dorsey told Yang, who is an advocate for universal basic income, or UBI, that such free cash payments could be a “floor” for people to stand on if they lose their income due to automation. ... And Dorsey is not alone in his predictions that artificial intelligence displace more than fast food cashiers and truck drivers.
“We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things,” says Zuckerberg, while speaking at Harvard, from which he famously dropped out. According to Zuckerberg’s remarks at Harvard, meeting your basic needs allows and encourages creativity and innovation.
So what are we going to do about it? Allow me to take you on a bit of a thought experiment.
I drive a Tesla, and if you didn’t know, these cars practically drive themselves. In a few short years, all trucks and vehicles WILL drive themselves. How many people on earth today earn a living by going? Millions.
So what happens when all cars begin to drive themselves? Will we tell every driver in the world to learn to program? It doesn’t sound very realistic.
Even programmers are at risk of being replaced by AI. Suppose you consider that computers are continuing their march towards becoming more intelligent and competent (measured in # of computations per second) at an exponential rate. In that case, it’s foreseen that humans will be permanently replaceable in the next few decades by robotics and AI.
What if everyone used the profits from automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence to accommodate humans with a perpetual vacation?
With the advancement of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence, it is becoming self-evident to the public that some universal basic income needs to be put in place.
But if we rely on government institutions and billionaires to help us bring together something like UBI, we may never get there. And if governments are the ones who usher in this type of future, it may not be aligned with the free markets’ will and people at large.
What if we leveraged the core technologies behind bitcoin and robotics to build a future where society voluntarily gave back some of the profits generated by automation to every single human being in the form of a universal basic income?
Is it even possible? Furthermore, we think we must explore these types of ideas further. Leave your comments below.