Author: automata

When robots take jobs, workers deserve compensation

When robots take jobs, workers deserve compensation

The largely forgotten fate of London’s watermen, who ferried passengers on the Thames for centuries before faster forms of transport stole their jobs, would seem of marginal relevance today. But the lessons of the past can often inform the decisions of the future. And as we fret about the rise of robots and the impact of artificial intelligence, the history of London’s water taxis can teach us something about how to ease disruption caused by new technologies. For many years, London’s watermen were the most numerous workers in the city. But complaints about their abusive practices forced parliament to […]

With automation (not trade or immigrants, as Trump claims) taking jobs, it’s time to consider a universal basic income

LFPress.com – Opinion – Work In Progress?

The main message of 2016 was that we are entering a period of economic and political upheaval comparable to the industrial revolution of 1780-1850, and nothing expressed that message more clearly than Donald Trump’s appointment of Andrew Puzder as secretary of labour — even though it’s clear that neither man understands the message.

Puzder bears a large part of the responsibility for giving space for Trump’s election promise to “bring back” America’s lost industrial jobs: seven million in the past 35 years. That’s what created the Rust Belt and the popular anger that put […]

Finland started the experiment on payment of a basic income

Finland was included in 2017 as the first country in the world where some citizens get a basic income is an unconditional payment from the state, which do not depend on their income or social status. The first participants in the experiment were selected by lot 2000 unemployed.

Those who will receive a basic income within two years will not receive unemployment benefits. 560 euros is the average size of the unemployment benefit after tax. Such sum will transfer the pension Agency Kela the participants of the experiment. By the standards of Finland with an average salary of more than […]

Universal basic income trials being considered in Scotland

Scotland looks set to be the first part of the UK to pilot a basic income for every citizen, as councils in Fife and Glasgow investigate trial schemes in 2017.

The councillor Matt Kerr has been championing the idea through the ornate halls of Glasgow City Chambers, and is frank about the challenges it poses.

“Like a lot of people, I was interested in the idea but never completely convinced,” he said. But working as Labour’s anti-poverty lead on the council, Kerr says that he “kept coming back to the basic income”.Kerr sees the basic income as a way of simplifying […]

Foxconn aims to replace almost entire workforce with robots

Foxconn aims to replace almost entire workforce with robots

Foxconn aims to replace almost entire workforce with robots
30 percent automation in China by 2020

According to the latest reports from Foxconn executives, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer now plans to replace nearly its entire human workforce with automated machines over three testing phases, due to advancements in the number of robots it can produce per year.
Dai Jia-peng, Foxconn’s GM of the Automation Technology Development Committee, says that the company has produced and deployed over 40,000 in-house industrial robots called “Foxbots” at its factories in China. It can now produce roughly 10,000 robots per year, allowing […]

Automation’s Future in Idaho Is Considered

Automation’s Future in Idaho Is Considered

In Idaho, a researcher at the state Department of Labor looked into automation and how it may play out locally. His overall estimate is based on that of the Oxford analysts , that nearly half of state jobs are susceptible within a couple decades.

But there’s no mention that workers are shoppers and are the engine of America’s consumer-driven economy. Nobody is discussing how the financial system is supposed to function without a healthy population of shoppers.

Or that the automation revolution makes immigration obsolete . The robots haven’t taken over — yet. Technology already is changing work force and how […]

Guaranteed Income for Every Citizen – Best Way To Revitalize Humanity

In June 2016, Switzerland voted in a referendum on the topic of introducing a basic income. If it had passed, all Swiss citizens, working or unemployed, would have received about $2,500 Swiss francs for adults and 625 francs for children per month as a guaranteed stipend from the government. Image credit Switzerland would have become the first country in the world to implement such an idea. Although the Swiss Federal Council rejected the initiative in August 2014, the rejection was more of a symbolic suggestion to vote against the basic income than a consequential political action: the Swiss people […]

Elon Musk says robots will push us to a universal basic income

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/18/elon-mus … -work.html

Elon Musk says robots will push us to a universal basic income—here’s how it would work

Burger flippers, truck drivers, and cashiers are going to be out of work in the coming decades, thanks to the accelerating pace of robotics and automation technology, some experts warn.And as large swaths of the population lose their jobs, the only viable solution might be for the government to institute a universal basic income, which would mean paying every resident a fixed amount of money to cover their needs.There’s a lot that’s still unclear about universal basic income, but here is […]

What I Learned from the No Year

What I Learned from the No Year

Tallulah is so done with 2016 On January 1st of this year I vowed to have a Happy No Year : a chance to reassess how I ought best to spend my time. It was hard. The better part of my academic life has been saying yes to as many things as possible to get a job, a better one and then tenure.

Now tenure may no longer matter (but that’s another post or ten).

I learned a lot in saying no. I’m still learning. I said yes to things I truly wanted to do. Of course I didn’t know that […]

BIEN Stories: Jan Otto Andersson

BIEN Stories: Jan Otto Andersson

Jan Otto Andersson (Åbo Akademi)

Several texts were momentous at the start of my BI journey, even though they did not always fit a strict definition of an unconditional basic income.

The first text was a pamphlet written by my acquaintance Gunnar Adler-Karlsson. In Danish it was called “No to Full Employment”, but it was not published in Swedish until renamed as “Thoughts on Full Employment”. Adler-Karlsson set out a vision of a three-layered society: the necessity economy, the capitalistic economy and the free economy. The vision included a “life income” or “citizen’s wage”, but everybody was supposed to take […]