Main Blog Page

Good writeup about the weaknesses of UBI (Universal Basic Income)

https://mises.org/blog/dangers-universal-basic-income

UBI is something being talked about in some countries. It is a guaranteed income for every citizen.

Some quotes:"The universal basic income shares another problem with traditional welfare systems. Far from promoting the unemployed from searching for work the market rewards, it actually subsidizes non-productive activities. The struggling entrepreneurs and artists mentioned earlier are struggling for a reason. For whatever reason, the market has deemed the goods they are providing to be insufficiently valuable. Their work simply isn’t productive according to those who would potentially consume the goods or services in question. In a functioning marketplace, producers of goods […]

Half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055 – McKinsey

Half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055 – McKinsey

The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) issued the report “A future that works: automation, employment, and productivity” which assesses the economic impact of these factors.

Advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are ushering in a new age of automation, as machines match or outperform human performance in a range of work activities, including ones requiring cognitive capabilities. In this report, part of our ongoing research into the future of work, we analyze the automation potential of the global economy, the factors that will determine the pace and extent of workplace adoption, and the economic impact associated with its […]

GM, Wal-Mart Were Already Aboard Trump’s Jobs Train

GM, Wal-Mart Were Already Aboard Trump's Jobs Train

(Bloomberg Gadfly) — Dealing with Donald Trump’s Twitter rants is a new phenomenon for U.S. companies. For many of his favorite targets, creating jobs isn’t.

General Motors Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Tuesday became the latest corporations to talk up the part they’re playing in the president-elect’s plan to become "the greatest jobs producer that God ever created." GM largely just summed up U.S. spending plans that had been in the works for a while, but it did so with panache , touting a $1 billion headline number and pledging to create or retain (emphasis on retain ) about […]

UNRISD United Nations Research Institute for Soc : Basic Income Gaining Momentum

The idea of unconditional basic income seems to be making headway in both government and business circles. In January 2017 Finland launched a 2-year basic income experiment, as announced by the Finnish Ambassador to the UN in Geneva at the 2016 UNRISD seminar on universal basic income, held on the occasion of a Swiss referendum on the topic. Another speaker at the seminar, Guy Standing , is a panellist at Davos, the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Annual Meeting, in a session titled ‘A Basic Income for All: Dream or Delusion?’

Public interest

The Finnish Social Insurance Institution, Kela, announced on 2 […]

Report: Automation Threatens Tasks, But Not Necessarily Jobs

Report: Automation Threatens Tasks, But Not Necessarily Jobs

A recent report suggests that half of jobs performed by humans could be automated in coming decades.

But the analysis from the McKinsey Global Institute does not expect mass unemployment to accompany that trend.

The report, titled "A future that works: Automation, employment, and productivity," said that any analysis of automation should focus on activities performed by humans at their occupations — and not the occupation as a whole.McKinsey analysts said that although less than five percent are susceptible to full automation, nearly all occupations — including skilled, high-pay positions — could be partially automated."As processes are transformed by the automation […]

Living, minimum wages reduce employment

Living, minimum wages reduce employment

What future will America have when so many of her citizens lack the ability to engage in critical thinking, refuse to connect the dots and fail to use common sense?

This unwillingness to think clearly is no better demonstrated than by the continued support for the minimum wage. After all the studies and the near-unanimous opinion of economists — and even after the negative real-world effect of the minimum wage — it still remains popular.

Why?Sadly, most people are simply unaware of the argument against the minimum wage. They just don’t know about the vast body of research that shows the […]

Robots will take jobs from humans, but later than thought

Robots will take jobs from humans, but later than thought

A World Bank study that came out in October 2016 said automation threatened 69 per cent of jobs in India and 77 per cent in China. World Bank president Jim Kim mentioned it during a discussion at the Brookings Institution. The report came at a time when automation claimed its first casualty in India as textile giant Raymond announced its decision to cut its workers. Last October Raymond decided to replace 10,000 of its workers, nearly two-thirds of its total workforce with robots. The news sent shockwaves across the industry, as it was the first sign of automation taking […]

Why a tech billionaire favors a universal basic income for every American

Why a tech billionaire favors a universal basic income for every American

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff is a billionaire with mansions in San Francisco and fancy digs in Hawaii . But he’s worried.

“People are losing faith in the future, believing that their children will be worse off than they are,” Benioff writes today at Fortune.com . “They are asking whether new technology is the road to a better future for all or only the few who are orchestrating the reshaping of our world.”

Benioff believes the future need not be bleak for all but the highly skilled, and he goes on to offer ways business leaders can shape the transition to artificial […]

Report: Automation Threatens Jobs, But Not Necessarily Employment

Report: Automation Threatens Jobs, But Not Necessarily Employment

Economists long worried about the impact of increasingly sophisticated industrial technology on the manufacturing workforce.

A newly released report, however, suggests that widespread unemployment due to automation appears unlikely — and notes that the global economy went through similar overhauls before.

"As processes are transformed by the automation of individual activities, people will perform activities that complement the work that machines do, and vice versa," researchers from the McKinsey Global Institute wrote in their report, titled "A future that works: Automation, employment, and productivity." The analysis argued that any forecast regarding automation, robotics or artificial intelligence should look not at individual […]

Fears that robots are coming for all our jobs are overdone, says McKinsey

Fears that robots are coming for all our jobs are overdone, says McKinsey

The robots are not really taking over Fears that robots are coming for all our jobs are overdone, and the automation of the workplace will take far longer than some are predicting to arrive.

That’s according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which on Tuesday published a report finding that, even as automation becomes more common, humans will still be needed to work alongside new technologies.

See: The robots are coming for your investments — why that might not be a bad thing “While much of the current debate about automation has focused on the potential for mass unemployment, predicated […]