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Post #1120243

Author
ChainsawAsh
Parent topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1120243/action/topic#1120243
Date created
19-Oct-2017, 9:22 PM

Warbler said:

Jeebus said:

Moving over to this thread just in case.

Warbler said:

ChainsawAsh said:

Warbler said:

Seriously, I am growing very concerned about the improvements in computers and computer intelligence. It is not out of the realm of possibility that computers will able to replace every human at every job. Imagine what it will do to the economy if humans are no long employable? What if computers do take over. I’m serious.

Universal basic income. It’s going to happen. It should happen way sooner than it’s going to though, and it’s going to carry a sigma similar to welfare for far too long after it’s implemented, too.

communism?

No, not at all. And frankly, this kind of misunderstanding frustrates me because it happens too often. Not every social program is Communism—universal healthcare isn’t Communism, free college isn’t Communism, universal basic income isn’t Communism. They may or may not be good ideas, but I wish people would argue about that rather than throwing out “sounds like Communism to me!” However, I trust that you were genuinely asking, and not just throwing the word out as a “gotcha,” so I’m going to respond.

Universal basic income, if it were implemented, would serve only as a safety net. It would be a way for the Government to say “here is a bit of money so that you can meet the basic standards of living; you’ll have food and water, and you’ll have shelter, now go do with your life what you will.” This is in no way the complete abolition of private property that Communism is. Private property still exists, and capitalism is still very much in place.

We would need more than just a safety. We are talking about going to a society where computers and robots have taken over every job and made humans obsolete and unemployable. That video linked to in the Random thoughts thread showed that computers and robots are eventually going to take over for doctors. No occupation is safe.

Which is why I see universal basic income as an inevitability and a stepping stone to a post-scarcity society.