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French Socialist Vision Promises Money for All, Funded by Robots

French Socialist Vision Promises Money for All, Funded by Robots

Most politicians promise more jobs. France’s Socialist presidential candidate is saying there may not be many in the future, but you’ll get paid anyway.

Benoit Hamon won France’s Socialist Party primary by proposing a basic income for all, an idea that every opponent said is unrealistic and unaffordable but which appealed to Socialist voters who’ve turned their back on party leaders.

The signature issue of the 49-year-old former education minister would mean the introduction of a 750-euros ($810) a month payment to all citizens. He says it will help alleviate poverty and make up for a shortage of work as the […]

How basic should basic income be?

How basic should basic income be?

Discussing the idea of universal basic income in the Economic Survey is a step in right direction

#budget 2017 #economic survey #UBI #universal basic income #economy #demonetisation Photo: Arun Kumar Before one takes a call on whether or not India should go down the universal basic income (UBI) route, some myths about the UBI need to be addressed. A universal basic income is an unconditional, regular, payment by the government to every individual, regardless of their wealth, age, ability, gender, health or skill level. It is universal in that it is paid to all individuals (note, not households). It […]

New Technologies, Automation And The Future

New Technologies, Automation and the Future

Elliott R. Morss© All Rights Reserved

Introduction In recent postings, I have joined many others in speculating on what effects the information revolution will have. Already, its impact has been tremendous. Its effects include: The elimination of a huge number of jobs lost in both service and production industries; Social media has completely transformed the manner in which we interact/communicate; Online shopping is growing rapidly, and Digital communication has resulted in an acceleration of technological discoveries. So what is coming? Since 2002, the McKinsey Global Institute (( MGI )) has been tracking changes […]

Big Announcement: I’m being awarded a $24,000 grant

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Hi everyone!

As many of you know, the Economic Security Project ( http://economicsecurityproject.org/) was recently launched with the goal of "funding projects like academic research, state and local basic income campaigns, and cultural projects around economic security" over the next two years with a fund of at least $10 million dollars.As recognition of the work I’ve been doing and to better enable the work I wish to do over the course of the next year to advance basic income’s adoption in the US, I’m being given a grant of $2,000/month for the next 12 months, starting in February, and also […]

Province gets input on implementing basic income in welfare system

Province gets input on implementing basic income in welfare system

Doing away with existing social assistance models for a so-called guaranteed basic income program was the focus of a public forum Monday night.

About 200 people from various local social service groups, representatives of poverty advocacy groups and those in poverty themselves gathered in Vanier Hall at the University of Windsor to share ideas about how the province should proceed on the concept of basic income.

Windsor was the 14th of 15 cities across the province that have received visits from the Basic Income Pilot Project consultation.“We’re going to try and get some ideas from people in Windsor as to what […]

Survey may have chapter on universal basic income

The Economic Survey to be presented in Parliament may feature a chapter on universal basic income this year. Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has promised to float the idea to let the government think over it. Universal basic income is a form of social security where the State transfers a sum of money to poor citizens to supplement their income to reach a certain threshold.
In the Indian context, it may mean people below the poverty line. Recently Subramanian had said that his effort would be to add a new chapter in the Economic Survey of 2017. He had […]

Desperate times: The Modi government has much ground to cover in this budget, but little wiggle room

Desperate times: The Modi government has much ground to cover in this budget, but little wiggle room

Image credit: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Having dug himself into a hole with demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi now needs to make a huge effort to climb out and hopes are riding high on the Union Budget for 2017-’18, to be presented on Wednesday. But there are severe limitations on what he can do.

The first budget after he assumed office, for 2014-’15, was a great opportunity for good economics. He could have dealt with burgeoning unmerited subsidies, huge tax-giveaways, unproductive industrial investments, building funds to modernise infrastructure, creating 12 million jobs a year and reforming governing structures. But he missed […]

New Technologies, Automation And The Future

New Technologies, Automation And The Future

Summary

It is hard to grasp just how rapidly technological change is occurring.

In this piece, I use a recent McKinsey Global Institute study to map where we are now and where we are going.There is good and danger ahead. New Technologies, Automation and the Future Elliott R. Morss© All Rights Reserved Introduction In recent postings, I have joined many others in speculating on what effects the information revolution will have. Already, its impact has been tremendous. Its effects include: The elimination of a huge number of jobs lost in both service and production industries; Social media has completely transformed […]

Elon Musk says there’s a ‘pretty good chance’ universal basic income will become reality

Elon Musk says there's a 'pretty good chance' universal basic income will become reality

Thomson Reuters If the trend of robot automation keeps up, millions of humans could lose their jobs by the middle of this century.

According to Elon Musk, the economic solution to that reality could simply be paying people regardless of whether or not they find work — a system of wealth distribution known as universal basic income.

"There’s a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation," the Tesla CEO said i n an interview with CNBC on November 4 . "I’m not sure what else one would do. That’s what […]

Colby Cosh: France’s socialists get behind the Breton Bernie and his Butlerian Jihad

Colby Cosh: France’s socialists get behind the Breton Bernie and his Butlerian Jihad

Kyle MacLachlan in David Lynch’s Dune — or, perhaps, the unfolding French presidential election. It’s getting hard to tell. You know how we sometimes refer to the Liberals, whether ironically or sincerely, as our “natural governing party”? The Parti Socialiste is arguably the French equivalent. But it has fallen on hard times. On Sunday the PS, party of reigning French president François Hollande, met to choose its nominee for this spring’s election. As far as one can tell, no one occupying any position on the French political spectrum has been happy with the uninspiring, unprincipled Hollande. Although eligible for […]