[ExI] Universal basic income

spike spike66 at att.net
Tue Jan 17 18:51:32 UTC 2017



-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf
Of BillK
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 9:34 AM
To: Extropy Chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: [ExI] Universal basic income

>...I can see that universal unemployment probably means that UBI will
become necessary. But I can't see where the money to do this comes
from...BillK
_______________________________________________

Ja to all, but I wish to clarify, the universal in UBI would not be income
but rather universal basic food and shelter.  That could be done for waaaaay
less money than any known alternative.  Shelter can be made reasonable from
retired shipping containers.  The food can be actual literal food, rather
than our current grocery debit cards.  It could provide reasonable survival
necessities without attracting illegal immigration.  Perhaps I am
idealistic, but my notion is that illegal immigration is caused by available
employment rather than available handouts.  People need jobs, not just
handouts.

What I am seeing with respect to John's scenario is the eventual creation of
K2 or even something less sophisticated but still capable.  Then a really
rich guy could build a robo-workforce that could build more K2s and go open
loop.  That isn't likely to happen in the next few years, but is likely to
happen in the next few decades.  

I don't know what we are going to do when robots do things better than we
can.  We have always created new jobs as people are employed controlling the
machines.  But what if that job isn't needed anymore.  We don't know.  None
of our major political parties can answer that questions.

spike 









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