Let's Riff on the next Tech/Social Revolution

[DBTrek]

Real unemployment down 8.7% since 2009, by the way.
Down.
Not up.

Trending away from disaster, not towards.

[Speaker to Animals]

Look at the disability numbers. Also, that particular unemoyment number does not count people who gave up or are working part-time jobs just to feed themselves. It's a cooked stat.

[DBTrek]

Gallup Good Job index climbing as well.
Pick your metrics, they're all telling the same story.

Disability claims applications trending down since 2010 - even though Baby boomers are getting older. In 2016 there were 2.3 million applications for disability - or 0.6% of the population.

Hardly seems like an environment where grown men should be discussing how to get the government to assume their living expenses in perpetuity while demanding nothing in return.

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

A government that provides services without making demands just doesn't strike me as all that terrible.

[Fife]

A government that provides services without making demands just doesn't strike me as all that terrible.

Terrible? TERRIBLE??? Fuck, Dude, its positively AWESOME!

[TheReal_ND]

Th-that's not how you smoke crack. Wtf? They stole my antenna for nothing.

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Everybody loves to party man.

[Fife]

Th-that's not how you smoke crack. Wtf? They stole my antenna for nothing.

Iuunnno. I searched the google for "people who think the government has the ability to hand out a free lunch are addicts of smoking heroin" or something like that. Maybe I just searched "TANSTAAFL heroin addicts", I really don't remember.

[TheReal_ND]

Pfft. More cost efficient to slam it. Statists everybody!

[Fife]

Here's your new mantra, UBI fans: Fuck work

Economists believe in full employment. Americans think that work builds character. But what if jobs aren’t working anymore?

Work means everything to us Americans. For centuries – since, say, 1650 – we’ve believed that it builds character (punctuality, initiative, honesty, self-discipline, and so forth). We’ve also believed that the market in labour, where we go to find work, has been relatively efficient in allocating opportunities and incomes. And we’ve believed that, even if it sucks, a job gives meaning, purpose and structure to our everyday lives – at any rate, we’re pretty sure that it gets us out of bed, pays the bills, makes us feel responsible, and keeps us away from daytime TV.

These beliefs are no longer plausible. In fact, they’ve become ridiculous, because there’s not enough work to go around, and what there is of it won’t pay the bills – unless of course you’ve landed a job as a drug dealer or a Wall Street banker, becoming a gangster either way.

Here's a mild rebuke of this utter nonsense: http://tomwoods.com/ep-934-time-for-peo ... out-a-job/

A Rutgers professor suggests it’s time we dropped our emphasis on jobs and work — many jobs are highly undesirable, and with automation the number of jobs is going to fall substantially anyway. And what’s so great about work? Think of the creativity that would emerge if we didn’t have to do them.

Peter Klein and I go through his article and respond.