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Tips for Jonathan Bartley and lessons from Richmond

Jonathan Bartley, the new (Sept 2016) Joint Leader of the Green Party will be on Radio 4 ‘Question Time’ next Friday. Here are some hints from an old hand.

Judging from the hustings which we shared in July and August, he will be an able representative of the Green Party who will enhance its credibility in the minds of the general public. But will he say any of the things which I thought we founded the Green Party in 1973 precisely in order to say, and which no one else will say? Here are some suggestions:

General background The Green […]

/pol/ – Politically Incorrect

>> >Have a friend
>He is a hippie leftest
>He is "bi"–has sex with dudes more often than with girls
>Smokes weed er’day
>Smokes some kind of crystal that is apparently "synthesized weed extract">Works a very hard manual labour industrial job>Believes in free basic incomeWhat the fuck is wrong with him? He’s a nice guy who is very generous and trusting, but something isn’t right in his weed addled brain. I confronted him about it, about how his tax dollars taken off his manual labour job check is going towards people abusing the system, and he just spouted a whole bunch of hippie […]

Automation for the People: The Public, Technology and Jobs

Automation for the People: The Public, Technology and Jobs

A 2012 research brief by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee at MIT renewed an old debate over the effect of new technologies on employment levels. They argued that, counter to the prevailing belief that new technologies and automation simply shift jobs into new sectors after a period of disruption, instead rapid improvements in technology over the past decades have left some workers completely behind, a trend that will continue to accelerate as computers capabilities expand. But what does the public think? Do Americans see technological threats to employment, and have their views changed since the days when robots first […]

Proposal Of Universal Basic Income Of $2,500 A Month Rejected

Proposal Of Universal Basic Income Of $2,500 A Month Rejected

FILE -A huge poster is pictured on the Plaine de Plainpalais square in Geneva, Switzerland. ( Magali Girardin/Keystone via AP) Switzerland – Swiss voters rejected by a wide margin on Sunday a proposal to introduce a guaranteed basic income for everyone living in the wealthy country after an uneasy debate about the future of work at a time of increasing automation.

Supporters had said introducing a monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,563) per adult and 625 francs per child under 18 no matter how much they work would promote human dignity and public service.

Opponents, including the government, said it […]

Robert Reich: Trump’s Trickle-Down Populism – OpEd

Robert Reich: Trump’s Trickle-Down Populism – OpEd

Donald Trump. Photo by Gage Skidmore, Wikipedia Commons. Last Thursday President-elect Donald Trump triumphantly celebrated Carrier’s decision to reverse its plan to close a furnace plant and move jobs to Mexico. Some 800 jobs will remain in Indianapolis.

“Corporate America is going to have to understand that we have to take care of our workers,” Trump told The New York Times . “The free market has been sorting it out and America’s been losing,” Vice President-elect Michael Pence added, as Trump interjected, “Every time, every time.”

So what’s the Trump alternative to the free market? Bribe giant corporations to keep jobs […]

Job Automation And Universal Basic Income

Elon Musk thinks a universal basic income is inevitable. Musk doesn’t see plausible alternatives . I hope not. So here’s the optimistic scenario: On the one hand, manual and low skilled work will mostly get automated out of existence. So one could imagine why demand for people at lower skill levels and lower levels of cognitive ability could just evaporate. On the other hand, automation will cut costs and boost the wealth of those still employed. Even if the pay of manual laborers is low the goods a manual laborer will need to survive should become very cheap. So […]

Are we ready for Universal Basic Income?

Are we ready for Universal Basic Income?

Money for all Universal Basic Income (UBI) proposals are gaining in popularity across the political spectrum. However most people don’t fully understand what a basic income is or how it would work. Vita International asked to James Boyce of the PERI, the Political Economic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts what UBI really means.

Scotland could roll out a universal basic income pilot which would not only mitigate against income insecurity but tackle poverty. Countries like Finland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands are preparing to test out a universal basic income . The Canadian province of Ontario will […]

/pol/ – Politically Incorrect

/pol/ - Politically Incorrect

84 KB PNG >> >>101330160
basic income means basic needs

basic food, basic water, basic shelter.
People would still need to work for things like a better place to live, a car, a family.Basic income is keeping ahead of the automation curve. Less people are going to need to work in the future.Sure there will be parasites, but that’s not going to change no matter what you do. This would give people more freedom in choosing to do what they want to do, instead of what they have to do. People tend to be more productive when they do things they […]

Free Basic Income For Parents

Free basic income would seem bad in all forms at first, however… It wouldn’t be the first progressive idea to be taken on by conservatives. A group of Bundestag members in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have proposed offering parents a basic state income — independent of their own financial situation. The fixed monthly payment, the exact amount of which was not mentioned, would be tied to child care costs and would be subject to social insurance contributions. The payment, part of what the CDU calls its “family pact,” would also be paid out from birth until the child […]

Robots, jobs and the human fear of change

Robots, jobs and the human fear of change

Steve Cousins is founder and CEO of Savioke , which develops and deploys autonomous robots that work in human environments to improve people’s lives. Steve was previously president and CEO of robotics incubator Willow Garage.

How to join the network

When it comes to technology’s impact on the economy, there continues to be concern that robots and other advances will lead to unemployment. But what does history really tell us about the impact of new technologies on jobs and the economy? And more importantly, what happens to America’s ability to compete in a global economy if we reject automation […]