Should we consider minimum income proposals more closely?
Pretty much.
A friend and I were talking about this the other day, in response to this same video. The big problem we saw with government-supplied basic income, is there's a single point of failure - if the government becomes too corrupt, you're out of luck.
An alternative option would be enforcing a norm of companies being very transparent with their finances, and tithing part of their profits to the general public. That system would probably be really hard to establish, but seems like it might be more sustainable; people have a lot of time on their hands that could be put toward keeping tabs on companies, and if one steps too far out of line, everyone boycotts it. This would probably also require punishing non-punishers - if a company that sells its' products to other companies steps out of line, people would have to boycott that company's customers, too. Some companies would be harder than others to retaliate against, though - especially utility companies and monopolies.
This entire post is mostly stuff I thought of or heard of yesterday; I have no idea if it's actually feasible, and likely it's not. But I'd like to hear the reasons why not.
My problem is that what are we going to do when there is nothing for humans to do? Where will there be meaningful work? I think we have to think even beyond money to sheer fulfillment.
I finally got into Ello (I was mad that I couldn't get an invitation for the longest time). I found this interesting video about automation and what we should do when most jobs no longer require humans. I have often wondered what we were going to do with the millions of unemployed people when machines create untold abundance. What will we need human workers to do? I have thought that there will be certain areas where we will want to interact with people. I think bots and other machines will be more assistants rather than fully taking over tasks in a few areas. I think it will be more balanced but that does not solve the problem of millions of unemployed undermining the economy and the wealth of nations. Do we save the jobs? Do we stop automation? Is this the natural course of history? Should we all be prepared to be destitute? Should we consider minimum income proposals more closely?
The video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU&feature=youtu.be
I found it on this interesting post. He projects a much more dystopian view of the Singularity and how it will affect humanity. I think his post is not mindful of Bostrom's work which I am plowing through but it might provide some discussion fodder.
The post is here:
https://ello.co/scottdakota/post/ofb9vzDer9NoiQvwdueyAg