On Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 2:55 AM Bruce A. Metcalf <brmetc...@comcast.net> wrote:
> 1. Make UBI work. The burden of ensuring that corporations pay > sufficient tax to keep their nations populace alive will be great, but > it's preferable to option 2. If done carefully, this will cushion the > blow by increasing the cost of automation while lowering the salary > demands of workers. It may well be that automation (and its associated > taxation) will prove to have a higher cost than simply hiring humans. > > This is also important because even a fully automated business needs > customers, especially in a consumer-driven economy like most of us > occupy. Henry Ford was cited for paying his workers more than the > prevailing wage so that they could afford to buy his products. Had he > not lead the way to higher industrial wages, his enterprise would have > foundered for lack of sales. Automated industry must similarly be > concerned that even with their economies they do not price themselves > above a falling market. > Assuming there is a straightforward way of figuring out the number of humans needed to perform the same work at comparable quality and speed, taxing your way out of this is an obvious solution. Might work for large developed economies, but developing economies like India would find it difficult to counter more advanced high quality products from developed nations. Wealth and income disparity in India is sustained primarily because of lack of basic education in the masses, but I don't expect the next generation to suffer the same handicap. So yes, pitchforks, lots of them. Perhaps space colonisation might allow something similar to the social stratification we have today because a lot of them might die on the trip and sending the precious minds that can maintain such systems over the long trip given the odds of survival might not make much sense. Perhaps getting used to zero G and being able to subsist on freeze dried foods might be a good skill to have - but mostly for the next generation. Those in their 20s to 40s now are probably screwed, yours truly included. Kiran -- Regards, Kiran
