If robots take your job, the government might have to pay you to live

[yortsed snacilbuper]

Burger flippers, truck drivers, and cashiers are going to be out of work in the coming decades, thanks to the accelerating pace of robotics and automation technology, some experts warn.

And as large swaths of the population lose their jobs, the only viable solution might be for the government to institute a universal basic income, which would mean paying every resident a fixed amount of money to cover their needs.

read more
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/18/elon-musk-says-robots-will-push-us-to-a-universal-basic-income-heres-how-it-would-work.html?__source=yahoo

[ananda]

1. Really?!??

With Reeps in charge .. I don't think so.

[Calculating]

2. Well

The only alternative is paying to fight riots and lock people up. I think a UI might be the cheaper option. Also with everybody unemployed there would be nobody with money to buy the goods produced by the robots anyway.

This probably won't be an issue for 20-30 years, but it will ultimately be a big deal in determining the success or failure of mankind.

[putitinD]

3. instead, they would just bring back poor houses.

[haele]

5. Dickensian-style "opportunity" communities. You're assigned grunt work for your 3 hots and a cot.

8 - 10 hours 5 - 6 days a week just doing mindless physical labor that can be done by a machine cheaper, but you're being assigned it because you, your friends, and 12-year-old+ family members are disposable and easily replicable. Also, hard labor will keep you docile, you'd be too tired to act up.
You and your family will be assigned a little company manufactured home or apartment in a tenement setting that is just insulated enough to keep you from dying of exposure and big enough you can move around in if you have a minimum of furnishing, you'll have to buy your survival goods at one of a few corporate knock-off 99cent type store (so they can claim you have choice), your kids will go to the company school - hey, maybe they'll get a company scholarship and get a little advanced training that can get them a job in entertainment or sports - and you and your spouse will get what's left of your collective "wages" (after the cost of all the provided services are taken out) at the company benefits window at the company HR office building that also doubles as the local health clinic and police station.
And if you're lucky and they think you're smart enough, you might get a job there.
But then again, those jobs will probably be set-asides for capos and collaborators, and management of these communities will be handled by the less "go-getter type" scion of the owners in this Brave New Ownership society - those who through inheritance and networking can afford to buy their own reality, comfort and well-being.

Haele

[atreides1]

4. Uh, no!!!

You realize who you're talking about, right? Republicans, who are going to try and cut off millions of Americans from access to health care, and change the Medicare and Social Security programs...I don't see them going for this!