Author: automata

The most recent report from the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers mentions, but rejects, the suggestion that a universal basic income be implemented to mitigate economic disruption caused by the automation of labor.

On December 20, the Council of Economic Advisers to US President Barack Obama released a report on policy responses to the threat of job loss due to artificial intelligence (AI) and other labor-displacing technologies.

The report recommends three general strategies: (1) greater investment in AI research (noting that, despite the challenges posed by technological unemployment, AI promises myriad benefits), (2) job training and education for the […]

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Define well balanced? If there comes a point when even the services industry is heavily automated where do we go? Feudalism? Do we all dig up the roads and concrete and become subsistence farmers when we reach the point where nobody can get a job? An economy is essentially just a circulation of money. If the demand for physical human labour is greatly reduced and people aren’t able to earn, therefore spend money, by what other means would money circulate? Hi Spiral,

New jobs will always be created as the world progresses and develops. Think how many staff Amazon employed […]

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Smiths Falls is a small town in Ontario that has been absolutely devastated by the realities of the modern economy over the last decade or so.

First , in 2004, a group home for the mentally disabled that employed 800 people announced its closing. Then in 2007 came what many thought might be the death blow for the economically depressed community: the Hershey’s chocolate plant, which had been a fixture of the local economy for decades, shipped out to Mexico . But that wasn’t all—one year later, Stanley Tools, a manufacturing company, also said it would shutter for good. […]

Full Post at motherboard.vice.com

Building on the RSA’s proposal, Jonny Ross-Tatam sets out the Buchanan Institute’s case for a Universal Basic Income.

An effective welfare system should provide a secure financial foundation on which everyone can build their lives and reach their potential. It should provide a stable safety net in the hard times, reward work and largely leave people to get on with their lives. A growing consensus of policy makers and politicians, from across the political spectrum, believe this is not the case with much of the current UK welfare system. Critics from the right take aim at its ‘high marginal deduction […]

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© Icy and Sot. COLOUR RAIN, Icy and Sot (New York, USA, 2013) The idea of an unconditional basic income (UBI) is quite simple: every legal resident in a country receives a monthly stipend sufficient to live above the poverty line. Let’s call this the ‘no frills culturally respectable standard of living’. The grant is unconditional on the performance of any labour or other form of contribution, and it is universal – everyone receives the grant, rich and poor alike. Grants go to individuals, not families. Parents are the custodians of under-age children’s grants, which may be smaller than […]

Full Post at www.unesco.org

Finland Basic Income Come January, the country of Finland will embark an experiment to see what happens when you give a universal basic income to unemployed citizens. It will hand out a cash sum of 560 euros ($585) to a random selection of 2,000 unemployed citizens in place of current social security benefits. The program will last for two years even if participants find work during that time.

It’s a grand social experiment to see how the labor market behaves when you secure and guarantee income. Some argue that it would help put a dent in unemployment because people unwilling […]

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In a recent interview, Swiss entrepreneur and activist Daniel Häni contends that “the unconditional basic income is an initiative against laziness.”

Häni is well known in the basic income as the co-founder the co-founder of Switzerland’s popular initiative for an unconditional basic income (UBI), which launched the campaign for a referendum to establish a national basic income.

In the interview, he talks about new conceptualizations of work in modern society, the value of time, and implied social changes from a UBI. Häni argues that man is not by nature lazy. He notes that, in contrast, much opposition to UBI comes from […]

Full Post at basicincome.org

The National League of Cities (NLC) — an advocacy organization representing 19,000 cities and towns in the United States — has published a report called The Future of Work in Cities , which briefly recommends that cities investigate universal basic income.

The Future of Work in Cities examines the changing nature of work, especially due to automation and the growth of the “gig” or “1099” economy, and the lays out several policy recommendations for cities to address these changes. One recommendation is that cities “explore basic income and other more broad-based social support systems.”

The NLC report describes basic income […]

Full Post at basicincome.org

Mission: poverty eradication. An idea gaining traction in various part of the world is that everyone in society should receive an amount of money from the state to cover their basic cost of living. People would no longer be stigmatised on benefits, argue supporters.

Dependent women would become financially independent. People would be freed to care for the elderly, crime would fall and the general health of the population would improve. Particularly in an era of fears about future mass unemployment caused by automation, there is a growing feeling that this citizens’ basic income is an idea that’s time has […]

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