Let's Riff on the next Tech/Social Revolution

[brewster]

Universal income is among the worst ideas I've ever heard.
And having frequented this forum and the last, I've heard some monumentally bad ideas.

If you eliminate most unskilled jobs, transfer all the wealth they would have received for work to the owners of the machines that replaced them, and don't provide that massive chunk of people with sustenance and housing, you will have literal blood in the streets.

All the Appalachian communities that lost jobs to the mechanization of coal (far more than to Obama or cheap gas) have been on govt life support for decades. SSD has become the de facto Universal Income. Half the people in those communities are already on support and the other half services them.

Econtalk had a fascinating discussion of it, the idea being that Universal income could be cheaper than the half assed collection of support and services we have now. http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2017/0 ... ger_3.html

[JohnDonne]

Future tech:
Imagine a swarm of nanobots creating an electric grid connecting your spinal column to the center of a warehouse floor. You flip through thousand pound packages like a cardsharp deals hands. Your nerves are charged with so much electricity you think your muscles will explode, but the ultra light implants hold you together like sticks in a marshmallow. At break time you roll your eyes through the blogosphere like a shaman in a trance.
So far the company has been good to you, they paid for all your updates and all your plugs. And that's something in the new economy. You find yourself wondering though if you really know what touching something feels like, as you skid-surf the electro-gardens, or is it the implants making it seem that way?

[brewster]

Future tech:
You find yourself wondering though if you really know what touching something feels like, as you skid-surf the electro-gardens, or is it the implants making it seem that way?

Then you say "what difference does it make?" and gland some more pseudo-endorphin.

[TheReal_ND]

It's what happens when you turn on BBC

So it means being informed of the facts then?

That and realizing your people are a bunch of cucks that would rather eat kebab than protect their girls.

[Montegriffo]

It's what happens when you turn on BBC

So it means being informed of the facts then?

That and realizing your people are a bunch of cucks that would rather eat kebab than protect their girls.

My people can do both and still retain their dignity by not becoming hysterical pearl clutchers every time something unpleasant happens to them. Get a grip Nuke you are starting to sound like DSL ffs.

[DBTrek]

What are you afraid of, exactly?

"Dude, you all will just pay my basic living expenses and expect nothing in return. What are you afraid of? Why you so scared? Chicken!"
And there you have it. The basic argument in favor of universal income, stripped down to its core.

[Martin Hash]

I think you should try it DB: send Donne a couple bucks, see if it hurts? (And, Donne, you try it back, but send DB $100 because he needs to be bribed a little.)

[Smitty-48]

I'd be fine with universal income as an alternative to the byzantine patchwork of social assistance programs currently in effect, a similar streamlining to a flat tax, and so a fundamentally conservative idea, as it could shrink the public sector unionized social welfare institutional complex, but the problem is, the Left will not make it either social welfare OR universal income, they insist on social welfare AND universal income, at which point, they've defeated the whole purpose and I'd withdraw my support for it on those grounds.

Universal income is essentially defeated by the Left, due to their inclination to protect their public sector unionized social welfare institutional complex, which, a fundamentally conservative replacement of with a guarunteed income, would if course be a dire threat to.

To wit, a flat income is as much a threat to the income office, as a flat tax is a threat to the tax office.

[DBTrek]

Awesome, sounds like Canada is happy to hand you a retirement pension at birth, why not move up there, JD?
Problem solved.

[Smitty-48]

JohnDonne would probably prefer Canader, but, we probably wouldn't take him, as, Canader actually in essence charges an entry fee, which, JohnDonne seems unlikely to be able to afford, since, he is a Bernie Bro, thus, unlikely to have much capital to invest.

That being said, once he was in, there is of course a guaranteed minimum income in effect, it's simply delivered in a very inefficient manner, same as it is in the USA.

Rather than have that byzantine complex of public sector unionized federal, state, and local social assistance programs that you do, it would save the American taxpayer billions, simply to tally all that up and cut him a cheque instead; "here ya go, now fuck off."

In the end, what's he going to do with it? Oh, spend it immediately in the local economy? Ah, win-win.